Simone Biles stood alone and stared at the 25 meters separating herself from the vault table, from her greatest fears, from her legacy. She had just turned to her closest friend on the U.S. women’s Olympic gymnastics team, Jordan Chiles, and asked the question on everyone’s mind: What if it happens again?
Chiles gaped. Biles had been kidding around earlier, reminding her teammates—in case they’d forgotten—that the last time they were at the Olympic team final, her entire world had collapsed. But this quiet moment in Paris last July felt just a bit more serious. “I think maybe half her brain was joking,” Chiles says now. “But the other half was like, Uhhh …”
