She flew. Not metaphorically. Not in that "she’s really good at jumping" kind of way, but in the way where physics seems to just... give up. If you watched the Paris 2024 Olympics, you saw a version of Simone Biles that shouldn't technically exist.
Most gymnasts are "old" at 20. At 27, Biles was competing against teenagers whose bones haven't even finished fusing yet, and she wasn't just keeping up. She was obliterating the field. But the scoreboard doesn't tell the real story. To understand why Simone Biles is the most important athlete of our generation, you have to look at the three years of silence between Tokyo and Paris. It wasn't just about a comeback. It was about a total redesign of what we think "greatness" looks like in professional sports.
The Tokyo Twist-Off and the Myth of "Quitting"
People still get this wrong. I hear it in barbershops and see it in comment sections all the time—the idea that she "quit" on her team in 2021. Honestly, it’s one of the most misunderstood moments in modern sports history.
Imagine you’re driving a car at 100 miles per hour and suddenly the steering wheel disconnects from the tires. That is essentially what the "twisties" are. It’s a neurological disconnect where your brain loses track of where your body is in the air. For a gymnast performing a Yurchenko double pike—a move so dangerous no other woman even tries it—losing your sense of up and down isn't just a mental block. It’s a potential death sentence. Or at the very least, a paralyzed-from-the-neck-down sentence.
She stepped back because she had to.
If she had pushed through, she would have fallen. Hard. By withdrawing, she actually saved the team’s chance at a medal because a substitute could step in and hit a routine, whereas a crashing Biles would have tanked the score. It was a tactical, high-stakes decision made under the kind of pressure that would break most humans. And yet, the backlash was vitriolic.
Simone Biles and the Evolution of the Vault
Let’s talk about the Yurchenko double pike. Now officially called the Biles II.
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To do this, she has to generate a terrifying amount of power. She hits the springboard, does a round-off onto the vault table, and then flips twice in a piked position—legs straight, grabbing her hamstrings—before finding the floor. Most male gymnasts struggle with this. It requires a specific power-to-weight ratio that defies traditional gymnastics scouting.
Usually, as gymnasts age, they lose that "pop" in their muscles. Fast-twitch fibers slow down. But Biles? She actually looked more powerful in 2024 than she did in Rio. Dr. Edward Laskowski, a co-director of Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine, has often noted that elite athletes can maintain peak power well into their late 20s if their training pivot focuses on recovery and "pre-hab" rather than just grinding out repetitions.
Biles did exactly that. She stopped training like a child who follows orders and started training like a CEO who manages an asset: her body.
Why the Difficulty Gap Matters
In gymnastics, you have two scores: the "D" score (difficulty) and the "E" score (execution).
Biles starts almost every competition with a massive lead because her D-scores are astronomical. She is performing skills that are rated so high that even if she takes a large hop on the landing or goes out of bounds, she still wins. It’s like starting a basketball game already up by 20 points.
- The Biles II on Vault (6.4 difficulty)
- The Biles on Floor (Double layout with a half twist)
- The Triple-Double (Two flips, three twists)
She has five moves named after her. Five. Most legends are lucky to have one.
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The Therapy Factor
You can't talk about Biles without talking about "the couch." She’s been incredibly vocal about seeing her therapist every Thursday. It’s become a non-negotiable part of her training block, right next to the uneven bars and the balance beam.
This is the shift.
In the 90s, the Karolyi era of gymnastics was defined by silence, pain, and fear. You didn't talk. You didn't eat much. You certainly didn't complain about your mental health. Biles fundamentally broke that system. By being the face of the "Gold Over Greatness" movement, she forced USA Gymnastics to change how they treat their athletes.
She isn't just winning medals; she's dismantling a legacy of abuse.
The Reality of the "GOAT" Debate
Is she the greatest of all time? It’s not even a conversation anymore.
Larisa Latynina has more Olympic medals (18), but she competed in an era where the sport was fundamentally different—less athletic, more balletic. Biles has 11 Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals. But the "GOAT" status comes from the gap between her and second place. In many of her wins, the margin of victory has been larger than the gap between second and tenth place. That’s Tiger Woods in 2000 level dominance. That’s Wayne Gretzky’s stats page level of "this shouldn't be possible."
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What Most People Miss About Her Longevity
Wait, why is she still so good?
Usually, by 27, your joints are shot. But Simone's technique is incredibly "clean." She uses her height and her center of gravity—she’s 4'8"—to her advantage. Because she is so compact, her rotational velocity is higher. Basically, she spins faster because she has less "length" to move around her axis.
But it’s also the environment. She trains at World Champions Centre in Texas, a gym her parents actually built. She isn't a guest in someone else's house. She is the boss. That sense of autonomy is something young gymnasts in the past never had. When you have a say in your training schedule, you don't burn out as fast.
How to Apply the "Biles Method" to Your Own Life
You aren't going to do a double-double on a 4-inch piece of wood. I’m certainly not. But the way Simone Biles handled the last four years is a blueprint for anyone dealing with high-pressure careers or personal burnout.
- Listen to the "No." If your brain is telling you that you're about to "crash the car," believe it. Pushing through a mental block when you are physically exhausted usually leads to injury, not a breakthrough.
- Recovery is a Skill. Biles spends as much time in compression boots and therapy as she does on the mat. If you're working 80 hours a week and wonder why you're failing, it’s because you’ve treated recovery as a luxury instead of a requirement.
- Own the Narrative. She didn't let the critics in 2021 define her. She went back to the lab, worked in private, and let the results in Paris do the talking.
Simone Biles didn't just return to gymnastics. She redefined what it means to be an adult in a sport designed for children. She proved that you can be vulnerable and still be the most dangerous competitor in the room.
If you want to follow her journey more closely, watch the "Simone Biles Rising" documentary. It's not just highlights; it shows the actual work, the tears, and the boring, repetitive therapy sessions that make the gold medals possible. Pay attention to how she talks to her coaches now versus ten years ago. It's a masterclass in professional boundaries.