Simone Biles dazzles in Paris Olympics debut despite injury scare

US’ Simone Biles competes in the balance beam event of the artistic gymnastics women’s qualification during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Bercy Arena in Paris, on July 28, 2024. (Photo by Loic VENANCE / AFP)

Simone Biles made a stunning return to Olympic competition on Sunday, powering through left calf pain to get her multiple-medal bid off to a rousing start at the Paris Olympics 2024.

The US superstar, aiming to add to the four gold medals she won in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, tweaked her left calf warming up for her second apparatus, the floor exercise.

It didn’t stop her from soaring through her signature Yurchenko double pike vault — now known as the Biles II — which even with a big step back on landing earned a 9.4 for execution for a massive total of 15.800 points.

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She had another step back landing her second vault, but laughed as she crawled back towards her teammates on her hands and knees.

That was all it took for Biles’s coach Cecile Landi to know that for Biles “It’s on. It’s OK.”

Landi, who said Biles aggravated a minor injury she’d first dealt with a couple of weeks ago, said there was never any doubt Biles would 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.

With three of the five qualifying sessions complete, the United States topped the team standings on 172.296 ahead of Italy and China, with all three assured places in the final.

Japan, led by a sparkling performance from 16-year-old Kishi Rina, were lying fourth ahead of Britain, Romania and the Netherlands with team medal contenders Brazil and France yet to compete.

Biles topped the all-around standings with 59.566 points.

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“Pretty amazing, 59.5” was Landi’s assessment of Biles’s performance in front of a star-studded crowd at Bercy Arena, where celebrity fans included Hollywood A-listers Tom Cruise, Jessica Chastain and Greta Gerwig, pop star Ariana Grande and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.

Chants of “U-S-A” rang out even before gymnasts made their entrance for the second session of qualifying, and the roar when Biles was introduced was deafening.

She crushed every element in her opening balance beam routine, roaring through her aerial skills and spins without a wobble.

It was then she appeared to hurt herself warming up for the floor exercise, but after having her left leg taped from calf to foot Biles delivered a dynamic floor routine that featured both her Biles I double layout with half a twist and her Biles II “triple-double” of two back flips with three twists.

‘Incredible’ Biles

“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.”

Landi said Biles was already feeling better by the time she closed out her day by sticking the landing on her uneven bars routine — receiving another huge ovation and beaming as she shared a dance with teammate Jordan Chiles.

Teammate Suni Lee, who has battled two career-threatening kidney ailments since winning all-around gold in Tokyo, was second in the all-around standings, meaning the all-around final is set to feature the last two gold medallists for the first time in Olympic history.

Algerian uneven bars specialist Kaylia Nemour topped that apparatus and was also headed to the all-around final.

But the spotlight was on Biles, who led the vault and floor exercise standings and was second in balance beam behind China’s Zhou Yaqin.

She was still clinging to the eighth and last finals berth in uneven bars with two qualifying sessions to come.

Biles withdrew from multiple events at the Tokyo Games as she battled the disorientating mental block that gymnasts call “twisties”.

She still went home with a silver and bronze and was lauded for speaking openly about mental health struggles.

After two years away, Biles returned to win four world titles last year, taking her tally to an astonishing 23.

At 27 she could become the oldest women’s all-around Olympic champion in 72 years and just the third woman to capture more than one Olympic all-around title.