Paris
CNN
—
Simone Biles overcame a sore calf to post an impressive all-around score on Sunday, demonstrating the qualities that have made her one of the greatest gymnasts of all time in her Olympic comeback.
Biles performed a flawless balance beam routine, earning a score of 14.733 (the highest score ever recorded on a balance beam), but landed awkwardly while warming up for the floor exercise and left the field, only to return with the lower part of her left leg heavily taped.
Her coach, Cecil Lundy, told reporters after the competition that Biles had been struggling with calf pain in the weeks leading up to the Paris competition and that it recurred during Sunday’s competition.
“She had a little bit of calf pain, but that was it,” Lundy told reporters.
Though she appeared to be in pain and walked with a limp, she twisted with her usual strength on every other apparatus and posted impressive scores of 15.800 on vault, 14.433 on uneven bars and 14.600 on floor exercise.
Her overall score of 59.566 was her best yet, more than three points ahead of teammate Suni Lee, although she and the U.S. team won’t know for sure whether they’ll advance to the finals until late Sunday, when countries finish their qualifying rounds.
When asked by reporters after Sunday’s competition if she was OK, Biles replied, “Yeah, I’m as good as I can be.” She declined to say any more, and Randy said she had no immediate concerns about her ability to compete during the Olympics.
Biles has had a long road to returning to the Olympics, where she suffered a mental breakdown known as “The Twisties” that forced her to withdraw from multiple events, including the women’s team final in Tokyo three years ago.
Biles kept moving throughout most of Sunday’s qualifying, barely sitting between workouts to keep her calves flexible. She was in obvious discomfort during the final triple jump of the day but barely slowed down, continuing with her trademark explosive movements.
After finishing her routine, Biles appeared to be beaming with joy, smiling, waving to the crowd and dancing in celebration with her teammates.
She led the individual all-around in the second event of the day, receiving the highest scores on vault and floor exercise (both of which she clearly achieved after injuries) and finishing with the second-best score on balance beam.
“Simone was amazing. She was outstanding,” USA Gymnastics technical lead Chelsea Memmel told reporters after the competition. “That’s how she trains: She goes out, she gets in the gym, she puts in the work. She did that on the podium. She did it again here. So it’s fun to watch her.”
Memmel told reporters that while he couldn’t publicly repeat the thoughts that ran through his mind after Biles appeared to be in pain, he was impressed with the star’s gritty performance.
“She’s a great gymnast and a great person — just a great person,” Memmel said. “So for her to be able to perform like that when it looked like she had pain in her legs, it’s amazing.”
Gymnastics qualifying will continue throughout the day on Sunday, so it will not be clear until the evening in Paris who will advance to medal contention on Tuesday.
This is breaking news and will be updated.
