Simone Biles
Julian Finney/Getty ImagesSimone Biles She will be at her best at the 2024 Paris Olympics and may be ready to do the same again in four years.
“Is this my last? It’s definitely (my last) Yurchenko double pike,” Biles, 27, joked during a news conference on Saturday, Aug. 3, after winning her third gold medal in Paris, naming Bolt after performing it hours earlier. “I mean, I did it right.”
Joking aside, Biles said she’d “never say never” about a possible return in 2028.
“The next Olympics are at home (Los Angeles), so you never know,” the gymnast said. “But I’m getting really old.”
As Team USA heads to the 2024 Paris Olympics, American athletes have already made an impression at the Summer Games. The 2024 Olympics opened on Friday, July 26, with a spectacular outdoor opening ceremony on the Seine River, featuring performances by Celine Dion and Lady Gaga.
Biles has now won three gold medals in Paris. On Saturday, she took first place in the vault event final, days after winning the All-Around. Her All-Around victory made her the oldest champion since. Maria Gorokovskaya Biles won the award for the second time in 1952.
Biles was also included on the winning team in the team event. Jordan Childs, Suni Lee, Jade Carey and Hazel Rivera. Biles is also scheduled to compete in the individual finals on beam and floor exercise this weekend.
Rebecca Andrade, Simone Biles, Jade Carey
Julian Finney/Getty ImagesThe Paris Olympics were a major comeback for Biles, who withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics four years ago with a “tail injury.”
Simone Biles is only 4 feet 8 inches tall, but her fame is huge. The Texas native began taking gymnastics classes at age 6 and was invited to a junior national team camp when she was 14. She won several World Championship gold medals before making her Olympic debut in Rio de Janeiro.
“I didn’t quit after a bad performance,” Biles wrote on her Instagram Story in July 2021. “I’ve had a lot of bad performances throughout my career and quit competing. I just got so lost that my safety and my team medal were at risk. So the girls stepped up and beat the rest of the competition and got the silver.”
She added at the time: “I have no idea how I even got into that safe. If you look at the photos and my eyes, you can see how disoriented I was in the air.”
After refocusing on her mental health, Biles returned to competitive gymnastics in 2023. This summer, she joined her third Olympic team.
Biles remained calm and focused as she prepared to step back onto the Olympic mat.
“I’m really nervous, which is to be expected,” she said in a TikTok video filmed before the all-around final on Friday, Aug. 2. “I feel a little bit better because I had therapy. I’ve been working really hard mentally for this moment.”
