After the misery of cheering from the stands as her opponents took the medals she was there to win, Simone Biles’s Tokyo Olympics in 2021 ended on an unforgettable note of defiance. She had suffered throughout the competition with the twisties, a severe mental block that causes a gymnast to lose air awareness when twisting, but Biles returned on the final day and demonstrated her resilience by winning bronze on the balance beam. She described the medal as more meaningful than her countless golds.
For almost two years, it was unclear whether that would be her final as an elite gymnast. But she returned and on Sunday at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp the American will take part at a major competition for the first time since the Olympics, the next step in an already remarkable comeback that has added another layer to her story.
