A lot has changed for 19-time world and four-time Olympic champion Simone Biles since her global debut 10 years ago at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp.
She’s become one of the sport’s most accomplished ever, married NFL player Jonathan Owens, and started a global conversation about mental health after taking time out at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Another thing that’s changed as she returned to the Belgian city on Sunday (1 October 2023) in the very same arena in which she won her first world title a decade ago: there’s no question how to say her name.
“The announcer has figured out how to pronounce her first name correctly,” joked Niels Daniel, the in-house announcer at both Antwerp Worlds, who in 2013 screamed ‘See-Mon-Ee Biles’ as the American finished her golden routines.
Her first international competition since the Tokyo Games got off to a strong start on the uneven bars, an event where she had issues at both the U.S. Classic and the recent U.S. Worlds trials.
Here, she executed a strong and confident exercise which included a stuck full-twisting, double back dismount that puncutated her return to the world stage. Her score was 14.400.
“There’s lots of eyes on her right now, trying to see she still has it and well, she needed to do it for herself,” said coach Laurent Landi, who has worked with Biles since late 2017, when asked if his pupil relaxed after a clean opening routine. “I think the podium training helped a lot to make her believe that she’s still capable of handling her nerves. She showed it today. I was very, very impressed.”
The second rotation moved Biles and Team USA to the balance beam – an event on which any nerves might creep in.
She had none as she executed her routine with only the tiniest of balance adjustments, scoring 14.566.
Biles soared on the floor exercise, keeping her trademark tumbling within the bounds of the mat for a 14.633, more than eight-tenths of a point better than anyone else on the day.
In the fourth rotation, Biles became the first female gymnast to perform a Yurchenko double pike vault. The element will now be named the Biles II in the gymnastics rule book, her fifth named element. She scored 15.266 for a 58.865 total in the all-around.
Biles’ 15.266 includes a 0.5 penalty for Landi standing on the podium for safety, something allowed on the uneven bars but not the vault.
“Oh, well, you know, I’m stressed before and then during it’s just… there’s nothing else you can do,” said Landi of his thoughts as Biles sprints toward him. “You know, it’s just ‘Okay. Same as if you’re in the gym, you know, just do another one.'”
In her return to the sport, Biles has put holistic wellbeing and a changed approach at the fore.
“I think what success means to me is a little bit different than before because before everyone defined success for me, even if I had my own narrative that I wanted,” Biles told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview prior to the global event. “So, now, it’s just showing up, being in a good head place, having fun out there, and whatever happens, happens.”
She and Team USA will go for team gold on Wednesday in Antwerp.
