Simone Biles: A Legacy Beyond Medals
PARIS — Manila Esposito, the bronze medalist on the balance beam, sat in a packed post-meet press conference, looking overwhelmed like a deer caught in headlights. As she began to speak, her voice was barely audible. In a moment of camaraderie, Simone Biles reached over and adjusted Esposito’s microphone, nodding encouragingly at the Italian gymnast to continue. Later, when a question was posed to Alice D’Amato, Esposito’s teammate, it took a moment for D’Amato to process the inquiry. As the moderator began to prompt her for a response, Biles gently reminded everyone that the translation into the earpieces takes time to process.
Every so often, a reminder surfaces: Simone Biles is 27 years old. This is not her first rodeo. She possesses a wealth of experience with microphones, translations, victories, and even the occasional defeat. Biles began her international competition journey over a decade ago as a braces-wearing 16-year-old. At that time, she was too young to drive and not old enough to drink when she competed in Rio in 2016.
Now, as a married woman, Biles finds herself fielding questions about her future, even before she concluded her competition in Paris. When asked how she feels about the prospect of competing in Los Angeles, she initially offered a noncommittal response. “It would be lovely to compete on my home turf,” she admitted, but she also recognized that age is indeed more than just a number. “I’m old,” she said, laughing softly.
Later, she expressed her frustration on X. “You guys really gotta stop asking athletes what’s next after they win a medal at the Olympics,” she tweeted, adding, “Let us soak up the moment we’ve worked our whole lives for.”
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This encapsulates the essence of the situation, but in Biles’ case, the messaging needs to be reversed. It is everyone else who should be appreciating her achievements instead of eagerly speculating about what comes next. This tendency to take greatness for granted leads to a sense of desperation, a wish to cling to something we may have underestimated. Biles is a constant, a near-certainty in the realm of sports. Neither age nor injuries, nor the trauma of abuse or mental health battles, have managed to defeat her. She returns every time, leaving us to worry: What if this is the end?
Indeed, it could very well be. Her coach, Cecile Landi, is set to become the head coach at the University of Georgia, with her husband and Biles’ co-coach, Laurent, planning to follow in a year after their daughter graduates from college. It seems like an ideal transition. Biles has nothing left to prove, yet that’s the tease. She moved past the need for validation three years ago.
In Tokyo, Biles faced the challenge of the twisties, a phenomenon that hindered her performance. She bravely excavated the roots of her mental health struggles, revealing the abuse she suffered at the hands of Larry Nassar and courageously questioning USA Gymnastics’ role in it during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. She examined her own “why,” a daunting task for anyone, as it prompts us to confront our desires and identities. Ultimately, Biles displayed remarkable courage by taking a year off from the sport that had once consumed her, working to rediscover her love for gymnastics.
“To do the work, the personal work to be here and to perform, it’s amazing,” Laurent Landi remarked. “It just shows how tough the mind is, and that if you heal it properly, you can be very, very successful.”
She is far from fading. Throughout the week, Biles managed a nagging calf injury she originally sustained before trials and aggravated in Paris during qualifications. Doctors wrapped her leg for the entirety of the competition, and while Biles downplayed the seriousness of her injury — playfully chastising reporters for their curiosity — Landi admitted it has been a matter of managing the pain rather than eliminating it completely. “It was bothering her, of course,” he said. “Was it impacting her performances? I don’t think so.”
Landi smirked, as if to challenge anyone to prove otherwise. Four medals, three of which were gold, surpassed the combined total of all but 22 countries competing in Paris to date.
The final day was intended to be a coronation, a victory lap, and a farewell. Instead, it revealed Biles’ humanity. She was fatigued, having competed in four of the five possible days. The mental toll of righting the Tokyo ship weighed heavily on her. The event finals felt strange; instead of music accompanying the gymnasts’ performances, the Bercy Arena took on a somber church-like atmosphere, complete with spectators disapprovingly tsk-tsking those who dared to react when gymnasts executed impressive skills on the beam.
“We asked several times if we could have some music or background noise,” Biles explained. “So I’m not really sure what happened there.”
These are not excuses but rather the realities of competition. The beam turned into a battlefield, with medals awarded to those who managed to stay on. Three women, including Sunisa Lee, fell before Biles, while two others faced serious balance checks. Yet when Biles missed a landing on her back layout step-out and fell, the arena gasped in collective disbelief. Later, after the competition concluded and Biles officially missed medaling, a mother in line at the Bercy Arena concession stand lamented to her young daughter, “I feel so bad for Simone.” The little girl, wide-eyed, responded, “She fell,” as if witnessing a masterpiece being marred by a single mistake.
Regardless of what Simone Biles chooses to do next, her legacy will undoubtedly be one of gymnastics excellence, but more importantly, it will be marked by her leadership and courage off the mat. (Naomi Baker / Getty Images)
In her defense, the young girl could hardly have been more than 8 years old. In her lifetime, Biles has epitomized Olympic perfection. Up until this beam final, Biles had competed in nine different Olympic events throughout her career, encompassing team, all-around, and event finals. She had medaled in every single one, claiming gold in seven of them.
Then, her very humanity had the audacity to reveal itself once again. Two hours after her beam mishap, Biles returned for the floor exercise, an event she has never lost in either the Olympics or Worlds. During warmups, she landed awkwardly, seemingly aggravating that same calf injury. Briefly tended to, Biles nonetheless proceeded to execute her first tumbling pass, restoring some semblance of order. However, on her second and fourth passes, Biles stepped out of bounds twice, costing her crucial tenths of a point that ultimately placed her second to Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade.
It is noteworthy that she faltered on two moves named after her, which no other gymnast even attempts. This is Biles’ definition of failure.
What constitutes her success? If you ask Biles, it resides not in the medals or her power, but rather in the very essence that emerged on the final day of competition: her authenticity. She takes pride in her accomplishments, but she is even prouder of the person she has become and the individuals she believes — accurately — she has inspired.
“Putting your mental health first, and taking time for yourself, whether you’re in sports or not, it’s about longevity,” she stated. “Longevity in sports, specifically, but also just for a better, healthier lifestyle.”
Not far from where Biles competed, a woman strolled down a Parisian sidewalk, her friendly Australian Shetland sheepdog in tow. Indulging dog lovers in need of a quick pet fix, she stopped for a chat. Though she was French, she was visiting Paris to enjoy the Olympics and, upon learning her new dog friends were from the U.S., immediately expressed her admiration for the “American gymnast.” She had watched Biles’ documentary on Netflix and praised her for initiating conversations about mental health.
“I am not an athlete,” she said, adding that she was nonetheless grateful for Biles’ courage in making it acceptable to “talk about” personal struggles. “I appreciate that.”
If this is indeed the end of her competitive journey, we should all take a moment to truly appreciate Simone Biles.
