Simone Biles stumbled a few days ago while competing in the floor exercise at the world championships — the square space where she flips, soars, and reaches seemingly impossible heights for a gymnast of her size.
During what was intended to be a relatively straightforward sequence of leaps, her right foot caught on the surface, causing her to lunge forward. As Biles regained her balance, she smirked and then smiled, as surprised by her fall as anyone in the audience.
She of course recovered swiftly, executing her final tumbling pass of the routine flawlessly, earning an impressive score, and securing her sixth individual all-around gold medal at the world championships, more than any other woman in the sport.
It was a metaphor for what Biles has experienced in the years since the Tokyo Olympics, when she was last seen on the international stage. There, she struggled, dealing with what she said felt like “the weight of the world on my shoulders,” with the expectation that the American team would win another gold medal, plus the onset of what gymnasts call the twisties, a potentially dangerous sensation that they’re lost in midair.
She withdrew from the team and all-around competitions, but she earned a bronze medal on the balance beam. And despite all of her prior success, she encountered criticism from social media pundits.
That was an unanticipated fall.
In the subsequent months, Biles worked to stabilize herself. She committed to therapy for her mental health, realizing that although she is phenomenal at gymnastics, it is acceptable to appreciate life outside the gym. She married Green Bay Packers defensive back Jonathan Owens, who was playing for Biles’ hometown Houston Texans when the two began courting.
Now she appears happier than we have ever seen her, and it was evident on her countenance during the world championships in Antwerp. It was present during team championships, the individual all-around, and event finals, as well as when she danced and chuckled with Rebeca Andrade, the silver medalist in the all-around, outside the gymnasium after the conclusion of their meet.
She has become an inspiration not only for a new generation of gymnasts — especially Black gymnasts, who once struggled for acceptance in the sport but now see many who look like them on the sport’s largest stages — but also for those struggling with their own mental health fluctuations. Her enormous facility just outside of Houston, World Champions Centre, has become the new paradigm for how gymnastics should be conducted, emphasizing fun and openness above all else while producing world-class gymnasts. Owens, who went undrafted out of Division II Missouri Western and is more knowledgeable than most about the dedication required to be an elite athlete, has become her greatest supporter.
Biles told Olympics.com prior to her departure for the world championships that she did not know what brought her back to the sport and that these past few weeks of competitions, including the world championships, were not really planned — a rare occurrence for a woman who said she typically plans everything. But she also didn’t want to have misgivings a decade from now, so here we are.
On Sunday, as she posed for photographers with her fifth and final medal of the meet held between her iridescent pink fingernails, the stadium announcer summed up the Biles we see now perfectly:
“She was the goat already. Now she is even GOATer!”
