CHICAGO (AFP) – Simone Biles makes her long-awaited return to gymnastics in Chicago today, with the dreaded “twisties” firmly behind her in what could be the first step on the road towards next year’s Olympic games.
The 26-year-old superstar has not taken part in elite competition since her tumultuous campaign at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics two years ago.
The four-time Olympic gold medallist and 19-time World Championships gold medallist arrived in Japan as one of the stars of Olympic sport, widely expected to crown her legacy with a successful defence of her 2016 Olympics all-around title.
But in what became one of the most gripping dramas of the Tokyo Games, Biles’s challenge unravelled dramatically, with the American making a series of uncharacteristic stumbles during early qualification rounds.
Biles later confided that she felt she had the “weight of the world on my shoulders” and after struggling in the early rounds of the team competition, she withdrew citing mental health issues.
Those same issues prompted her withdrawal from the all-around competition as well as the vault, uneven bars and floor disciplines.
She eventually returned for the balance beam final, opting for a safer-than-usual routine that earned a bronze medal.
Biles attributed her problems to an attack of the “twisties” – a phenomenon in gymnastics where athletes become disoriented and lose their sense of where they are in the air at a given moment, potentially leaving them at risk of injury when they land.
“It’s the craziest feeling ever. Not having an inch of control over your body,” Biles explained in 2021.
