PARIS (AP) — The scene looked dramatic. To the thousands of people inside Bercy Arena on Sunday during women’s gymnastics qualifying — from the A-list celebrities to the fans who had traveled from all over the globe to catch Simone Biles — it certainly felt dramatic.
To Biles, her teammates and the Team USA coaches? Not so much.
Sure, the sight of the 27-year-old American gymnastics superstar walking off the floor with USA Gymnastics team doctor Marcia Faustin during Olympic qualifying evoked images of the 2020 Olympics, when Biles removed herself from the team final to focus on her mental health.
There was one critical difference this time around.
As Faustin followed Biles off the floor, she carried athletic tape in her hands. A short time later, Biles gingerly returned, the lower half of her left leg wrapped up to deal with a calf injury she aggravated during her warmup on floor exercise.
What followed were three rotations filled with her typical brilliance.
A floor routine that remains the most difficult in the world by a wide margin. Two vaults — including the Yurchenko double pike that carries her name in the sport’s Code of Points — that require her to explode off the board with enough power to rotate and flip multiple times in a split second. An uneven bars set that ended with Biles waving to the crowd and dancing alongside good friend Jordan Chiles.
By the time Biles was done, she had produced an all-around score of 59.566, well clear of Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade in second.
Afterward, Biles’ longtime coach Cecile Landi grew uncharacteristically frustrated when asked about the injury and how it might impact the rest of the Games, starting with the team final on Tuesday night.
A final Biles certainly seems to be up for. She will start on all four events for the Americans and shared a post on social media early Monday that she remains “grateful to be doing what I love.”
