Follow our Olympic coverage in the lead-up to the Paris Games.
HARTFORD, Conn. — Security opened the doors to the XL Center in downtown Hartford at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. By 5:40, the screams started, the sort of largely female, high-pitched pre-teen squeals that you might expect to hear on the Eras Tour. They ebbed and flowed for 90 minutes of warmups, peaking into a crescendo every time Simone Biles did … something.
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The thing, of course, is Biles never does just something. She does some … thing, moves that no one else in her sport dare consider let alone try, moves that defy what should be the human elements of gravity. At the Core Hydration Classic here, the last three all-around Olympic champions assembled for the first time in history — Sunisa Lee, the 2020 winner back from a debilitating kidney disease; Biles, the 2016 winner; and Gabby Douglas, the wizened 28-year-old trying to return to the Olympics 12 years after winning gold. They were joined by two other Olympians, Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles; two-time world championships team member Shilese Jones and a host of NCAA champions, a field that speaks to the depth of this U.S. team’s potential.
Each earned more than their share of attention, appreciation and adulation.
None matched the noise that greeted Biles. At one point during warm-ups, after she did her signature Yurchenko double pike on the vault (also known as the Biles II), the screams grew so loud that even Douglas and Jones, a very strong contender for a medal in Paris, turned around to see what all the commotion was about.
They turned back around quickly, as if to shrug, “Right. Simone.”
Doesn’t get much better than that from Simone Biles on the vault! #CoreClassic
📺 @CNBC & @peacock | #CoreClassic pic.twitter.com/fATStpcRPN
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) May 19, 2024
Two hours later, after she finished on her final event, the uneven bars, Biles gave fans screaming her name a wave and blew them a kiss, causing an eruption that felt like it was teetering on hysteria.
This is what it is like to be Biles. She is incredibly famous, a world-class athlete whose name will leave a lasting imprint in the record books. The screeches here are understandable, largely from little girls who dream of being Biles able to see Biles in the flesh.
But she is also something of a fascinating dichotomy packaged into 56 inches of incredible human force.
At 27, Biles is finally embracing life’s ordinary joys. A year ago she got married, and her Instagram page is stuffed with date nights with her husband (NFL player Jonathan Owens), girls’ nights out and visits to the Green Bay Packers’ sidelines for Owens’ games. Those social media posts exude more than just happiness; they scream contentment, a gift hard-earned after Biles’ well-documented mental health struggles in Tokyo.
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Yet she remains extraordinary in the truest sense of the word, a woman so uniquely talented that she has more moves (five) named after her than any other gymnast in history. She has nothing left to prove. Biles owns 37 world and Olympic medals, including four Olympic golds, and has recorded a track record of dominance so singular it borders on absurd. Golf fans are currently giddy about Scottie Scheffler’s run of four wins in his last five starts. Biles again won the all-around in this meet Saturday, outdistancing Jones by 1.8 points. She has not lost an all-around in which she’s competed and completed since 2013.
That’s 11 years. Without losing. Dating all the way back to when she was barely a teenager.
Except, of course, for the qualifier.
Are you “… Ready for It?” Biles began her floor routine Saturday using the Taylor Swift song, an exceptionally appropriate choice. This is the question, of course, dogging Biles now for three years, since she withdrew first from the team competition and eventually from the all-around at the Tokyo Olympics, unable to compete because of her battle with the twisties, a sort of vertigo for gymnasts that causes them to lose spacial awareness while performing mid-air.
Simone Biles entertains the crowd with a superb floor routine! ✨
📺 @cnbc & @peacock | #CoreClassic pic.twitter.com/uNujoJfjE0
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) May 19, 2024
Her decision in 2021 sparked debate about team commitment versus mental health, but Biles remained steadfast in her decision to put herself — and her safety — before everything else. When she won bronze on the beam, Biles said the third-place medal was the most meaningful because of what she had to overcome to earn it.
There should, of course, have been no arguing her decision to withdraw, and the controversy, if it must be called that, did real good. Once verboten, the willingness of powerful — seemingly impenetrable — athletes to speak candidly about their mental health struggles has brought an openness to much-needed dialogue about what it is to not always feel OK. Biles does superhuman things; she is, however immensely human.
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Biles took a full year off, returning to team competition in 2023. At the world championships in the fall, she promptly picked up where she left off, helping the U.S. to a team gold, while adding three more for herself. That should end any pent-up skepticism about her ability and strength to continue.
But the world feeds off skepticism and asks constantly for even the best to prove their worth. And for better or worse, Olympic-sport athletes face unique scrutiny because of the calendar in which they compete. Gymnastics fans may pay attention all the time; the rest of the world keys in every four years. With Paris beckoning, the city of lights will cast an especially strong spotlight on Biles.
All of that serves, then, as the backdrop to what happened at the Core Hydration Classic, Biles’ first competition since those world championships. She threw three of those named moves — two on floor, and one on vault. She stepped out on her signature tumbling pass, but completed the triple-twisting double back tuck with ease. She took a hop back on the Biles II but landed it and scored no worse than second on any of the four apparatus.
She appears very ready for it.
GO DEEPER
Gabby Douglas withdraws from Classic amid comeback
(Top photo of Simone Biles at Saturday’s Core Hydration Classic: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)