Simone Biles made a remarkable return to Olympic competition on Sunday, overcoming left calf pain to kick off her multiple-medal bid.
Despite tweaking her calf while warming up for the floor exercise, the US gymnast stunned the audience with her performance.
Biles aimed to add to her four gold medals from the 2016 Rio Olympics.
She executed her signature Yurchenko double pike vault, also known as the Biles II, earning a 9.4 for execution and a total of 15.800 points despite a step back on landing. Although she stumbled on her second vault, Biles remained determined to continue.
Never in her mind, Landi said, adding that she was also confident that Biles would be ready to go for the team final on Tuesday and the individual events to follow.
Pretty amazing, was Landi’s assessment after Biles topped the all-around standings with 59.566 points.
With four of the five qualifying sessions completed, the United States led the team standings with 172.296 points.
Italy, China, Japan, Canada, and Great Britain also secured places in the final. Team contender Brazil, led by vault world champion Rebeca Andrade, was yet to compete. France’s hopes for a podium finish on home soil were dampened by errors from Melanie De Jesus Dos Santos and her team.
Biles’s return to the Olympics attracted a star-studded crowd to Bercy Arena, with celebrities like Tom Cruise, Jessica Chastain, Greta Gerwig, Ariana Grande, and Anna Wintour in attendance. Chants of U-S-A filled the arena as gymnasts made their entrance, and the roar for Biles was deafening.
Biles excelled in her balance beam routine but appeared to hurt herself while warming up for the floor exercise. After taping her left leg from calf to foot, she delivered a powerful floor routine, including her Biles I double layout with half a twist and her Biles II triple-double.
It’s incredible, US team technical lead Chellsie Memmel said. What she was able to do looking like she has soreness or something in her leg is remarkable.
By the time Biles closed her day with a clean uneven bars routine, she was already feeling better. The crowd’s ovation was overwhelming.
Teammate Sunisa Lee, who overcame two career-threatening kidney ailments since winning all-around gold in Tokyo, ranked second in the all-around standings. This sets the stage for an all-around final featuring the last two gold medalists for the first time in Olympic history. Algerian uneven bars specialist Kaylia Nemour also topped that apparatus, heading to the all-around final.
Biles led the vault and floor exercise standings and was second in the balance beam standings behind China’s Zhou Yaqin. She held onto the eighth and final berth in uneven bars with the last qualifying session yet to come.
In the Tokyo Games, Biles withdrew from multiple events to deal with the disorientating mental block known as twisties. Despite this, she earned a silver and bronze and was praised for her openness about mental health struggles.
After a two-year break, Biles came back strong, winning four world titles last year and increasing her tally to 23. At 27, she could become the oldest women’s all-around Olympic champion in 72 years and just the third woman to win more than one Olympic all-around title.
