MINNEAPOLIS — Possibly essentially the most remarkable thing about Simone Biles’ decade-plus run redefining what’s possible in gymnastics is how she has managed to remain healthy while doing it.
She is well-versed within the danger lurking at every turn, every twist, every landing. Blocking all of it out and forging ahead could also be her best skill, one which was put to the test on Friday night on the U.S. Olympic trials.
Before Biles hopped on the uneven bars in her first event, Kayla DiCello’s hopes of joining Biles in Paris ended with a torn right Achilles suffered a number of feet away on vault.
A short while later, Shilese Jones gingerly made her off the ground with a leg injury that left the six-time world championship medalist’s status very much up within the air.
It’s loads to absorb, even for a 27-year-old who has made the unattainable look impossibly easy so often for therefore long.
The entire meet is, as she put it, “so stressful, so heavy.”
Still.
“If we are able to do that, we are able to do anything,” she added.
So while there have been some uncharacteristically sloppy moments early, there was a splash of Biles’ singular brilliance late on her solution to an all-around total of 58.900 that put her position to lock up an automatic berth on the five-woman team that can be announced on Sunday night.
Still, it was hard to shake the image of two of her peers exiting in tears, all of it accompanied by an ever-present fear that never really goes away irrespective of how long you do that for a living.
“There’s anxiety,” Biles longtime co-coach Laurent Landi said. “(It’s) all right am I the subsequent one to get hurt? What’s going to occur to me?’”
Landi’s advice was easy and direct, long essentially the most effective solution to communicate with the most important star of the U.S. Olympic movement.
“You may’t control this,” Landi told her. “So control the controllable.”
She did. Even on an evening when she wasn’t at her unparalleled best, she left little doubt she stays accountable for her gymnastics and — perhaps most vital of all — accountable for her emotions.
While there was an uncharacteristically sloppy and shaky balance beam routine that left Biles cursing for all of the cameras to see, there was also a standing ovation that accompanied her Yurchenko Double Pike vault, the one which’s named after her in the game’s Code of Points and is amongst essentially the most difficult done on this planet by anyone, man or woman.
And so it goes for Biles, who will head to Paris heavily favored to bookend the Olympic all-around gold she won as an adolescent in 2016.
Lots has happened since then, marriage, a fistful of world titles and a memorable trip to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she removed herself from multiple finals to give attention to her mental health.
She took a two-year break from competition after coming back from Japan but has looked nearly as good as ever for many of the last 12 months, joking after her record ninth national title earlier this month she’s “aging like fantastic wine.”
Biles hardly appears to be the just one.
Jordan Chiles, 23, is surging toward an Olympic spot just as she did three years ago. She finished in the highest six on all 4 events on Friday, heady territory considering injuries earlier this 12 months appeared to dim her possibilities of making it to Paris.
Now, not a lot. Yet Chiles laughed when asked if her previous experience on this spot helped her navigate the complex emotions of a meet that may alter the lifetime of the five women who hear their name called at the tip of it.
“No,” Chiles said. “I literally was saying this earlier this morning. I used to be like ‘Irrespective of what meet I’ve done in my life, that is essentially the most stressful one I’ve done in my whole entire profession.’ Since it’s that one night it’s such as you either discover you make it otherwise you don’t.”
Chiles appears on the verge of a return to her sport’s biggest stage. So does reigning Olympic champion Sunisa Lee.
The 21-year-old Lee, who has spent many of the last two years battling kidney-related health issues, used a pair of fantastic sets on uneven bars and balance beam in front of a hometown crowd to complete third.
Behind Lee was 24-year-old Jade Carey, the reigning Olympic champion on floor exercise. Carey, who has spent the last three years deftly straddling the road between collegiate and elite gymnastics, finished second behind Biles on vault and fourth on floor.
The largest query heading into Sunday will center on who will land the fifth spot. Joscelyn Roberson — at 18 considered one of the younger athletes within the 13-woman field — used a robust set on floor to complete fifth.
Yet USA Gymnastics officials stress they will not be married to the concept of taking the highest five in rank order at the tip of trials, which is what happened under previous leadership in 2021.
Kaliya Lincoln put up the second-best rating on floor. Hezley Rivera appears to be improving with each passing meet and 2020 Olympic alternate and four-time world championship medalist Leanne Wong has loads of international experience.
Jones, the highest American gymnast not named Biles when healthy, has spent many of the last two years looking essentially like a lock. That likely ended before the competition even officially began
The 21-year-old arrived on the Goal Center already nursing a rather torn labrum in her right shoulder. Then she landed awkwardly while warming up on vault, wrenching her left knee.
She exited briefly but returned to be introduced with the remainder of the sphere. She skipped the vault in the primary rotation but returned to grit through the uneven bars, her best event.
While Jones put together a superb 14.625 even while doing a rather watered-down routine, she gingerly made her way off the rostrum. She talked to medical staff for several minutes before leaving for good.
Whether Jones tries to present it a shot on Sunday is unclear. What is evident — what has all the time been clear since making her senior debut in 2013 — is that there may be Biles, and there may be everyone else.