Seven-time Olympic medalist Simone Biles returns to competitive gymnastics for the first time since the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as she competes in the 2023 U.S. Classic in Chicago on Saturday.
Biles officially joined the competition at a training session on Friday, where she worked on her floor routine, the uneven bars, and the balance beam.
“She can do everything that she was doing before,” Cecile Canqueteau-Landi, Biles’ coach, told ESPN. “We just adjusted the routines to use the new code of points and make it as mentally and physically comfortable as she can handle.”
Biles won two medals at the Tokyo Olympics but pulled out of five events at the competition and decided to take a break from the sport to focus on her mental health, becoming an outspoken advocate on the issue.
“I knew that I could have the possibility of becoming an advocate for that,” she told Olympics.com in an interview. “But it wasn’t my goal. It’s not what I really wanted. … I’m still going through my own thing. So how am I supposed to teach people, hey, like, you should do this or this, but everybody goes through that process differently, and there are different methods that work for each individual person.”
“So, I didn’t really want to, but at least we’re going through it together, and I could teach them something in that,” she added.
After the two-year mental break, Biles returns to be part of a competitive field in Chicago that has won a combined 55 medals in the Olympics and world championships. Many believe this is her first step to rejoining the U.S. Olympic Team at the Paris Olympics next year, although she has not made any official comments or statements on the matter.
The U.S. Classic helps determine who will participate in the national championships in San Diego at the end of the month. Other notable gymnasts participating in the competition include Sunisa Lee and Hezly Rivera.
Biles will compete in the evening session, which begins at 7 p.m. CT on Saturday.
