All eyes will be on Simone Biles when the seven-time Olympic medalist hailed as the greatest gymnast of all time returns to competition for the first time in more than two years on Saturday at the US Classic in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, in the northwest Chicago suburbs.
The anticipation has mounted ever since 26-year-old from greater Houston quietly added her name to the entry list for the traditional tune-up event ahead of the US national championships later this month. The meet will be the first time Biles has competed since the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics in August 2021, where she won team silver and an individual bronze on beam while withdrawing from a majority of her event finals while dealing with a bout of the ‘twisties’, the dangerous phenomenon where gymnasts are separated from their sense of spatial awareness.
The 2016 Olympic all-around champion, who married Green Bay Packers defensive back Jonathan Owens earlier this year, never removed herself from the anti-doping pool after Tokyo, leaving the door open for her return. But her comeback to the mat following a 732-day layoff, a closely guarded secret in the parochial world of gymnastics, still qualifies as a surprise.
Biles has not said much about her return since USA Gymnastics amplified it with a bombshell press release in June. There was a July tweet apologizing for being “a little MIA since the announcement” and thanking her fans for their support. And there was last week’s Q&A on Instagram where she admitted that twisting on every event was the hardest part of coming back.
“When the twisties happen, you go right into the gym & work on it,” Biles wrote Sunday on Instagram. “I took over a year off and THEN came back... So I was petrified.
“But I’m fine. I’m twisting again. No worries. All is good.”
As of Friday, she was scheduled to compete in all four disciplines. But despite all efforts to slow-roll the hype train, Biles has plenty left to offer if reports of her preparations are any indication.
Last month, she participated in a US national team camp in Texas, winning the all-around by 3.5 points with a total score of 57.65, according to the Gymternet. She placed first in the vault, beam and floor exercise, while coming in third on the uneven bars, traditionally her weakest discipline. That performance was enough to qualify her for the US national championships at the end of the month in San Jose and a crack at her eighth all-around national title, though she has yet to confirm whether she will enter.
Nor has Biles confirmed if she will take place in a September selection camp ahead of the world championships in Antwerp – or whether a bid to make the five-woman team for the 2024 Paris Olympics is her ultimate goal.
Reports from last month’s camp also indicate that Biles completed her Yurchenko double pike, the perilous vault which she debuted at the 2021 US Classic. Considered so dangerous that no other woman has even attempted it in competition, it would have become the fifth element in the women’s artistic gymnastics code of points to be named after Biles if she’d completed it in Tokyo as planned. (The International Gymnastics Federation only names skills after gymnasts if they perform them at a major international competition, including World Cup meets, the world championships or the Olympics.)
The 4ft 11in dynamo used the US Classic as her comeback meet following a previous two-year hiatus from competition in 2018. Her composite tally of 58.700 was not only enough to win, but marked the highest all-around score in the world since the 62.366 she’d posted in Rio, where she became a household name in fulfilling her long-held promise with four gold medals in seven unforgettable days. She went on to win 11 medals at the next two world championships, including nine golds, extending her lead as the most decorated gymnast of all time.
Biles is not the only American star on the comeback trail outside Chicago this weekend. Suni Lee will also be making her return to elite gymnastics after two collegiate seasons at Auburn University, marking the first time that two Olympic all-around champions are in the same domestic competition.
Lee missed the second half of her sophomore year with the Tigers while struggling with with a kidney-related health issue that continues to interrupt her training, but has committed to a 2024 Olympic bid and a shot at defending her all-around title and improving on her Tokyo bronze on the uneven bars, her signature event.
Both Biles and Lee are scheduled to compete in the evening session on Saturday, which airs domestically at 8pm ET on CNBC, the NBC Sports app and Peacock. USA Gymnastics will also offer a live stream on YouTube for those outside of the US.
