Simone Biles defines true greatness on a testing night

PARIS – On the square where the women’s floor exercise was going to take place, people were busy at work. Indentations in the surface were flattened. A sponge washed away imperfections. Vacuum cleaners removed dust. A measuring tape checked dimensions.

It was as if they knew that hours later Simone Biles of the United States and Rebeca Andrade of Brazil would duel brilliantly on this final apparatus for the gold medal. As if an almost flawless canvas was required for two almost flawless women artists.

Eventually true greatness squeaked through and Biles, who has never lost a major all-around competition since 2013, won her sixth Olympic gold. Andrade won silver and the American defending champion Sunisa Lee the bronze.

Still it was close. After the vault, and the uneven bars where she stumbled, Biles was third. “I was probably praying to every single god out there,” she grinned. After a spotless beam routine she regained the lead but by .166 of a point from Andrade. A once commanding champion was being pushed around.

“I don’t want to compete with Rebeca no more,” laughed Biles. “I’m tired. She’s way too close. I’ve never had an athlete that close, so it definitely put me on my toes and it brought out the best athlete in myself. So I’m excited and proud to compete with her, but I don’t like it no more... I was stressing.”

What is true greatness, we wonder and here it was. Older at 27, talking to a therapist on competition mornings and yet unafraid. Biles has elevated her art form, literally and otherwise. She has five moves named after her and rises sometimes seven feet in the air. The higher she goes the more time and space she has to produce intricate moves. True greatness makes us rethink science, for she suggests she is defying gravity.

True greatness, she again reminded us, is a privilege to watch, irrespective of how many times we see it. There are a million practice-range champions, but only a few who rise with the moment. Biles knows pressure is coming and seems to say, “Ok, fine, see you out there”. In the floor exercise, when Andrade, the second-last competitor, had a good routine, Biles met it with a great one. A 14.033 was replied to with a 15.066.

Biles danced in delight and a fair crowd hollered. This was not the best Biles, just a Biles who wouldn’t be bested. True greatness isn’t always perfect, just stubborn and risk-taking. The American’s vault, the Yurchenko double pike, is both difficult and dangerous but respect forced her to stay with it.

“Thank God,” Biles said, “we did the double pike today, because I wasn’t planning on it, but I just knew how phenomenal of an athlete (Rebeca) is and on each event we’re very similar in scores. So I was like, ‘Okay, I think I have to bring out the big guns this time’.”

Nadia Comaneci was interviewed earlier and said she was grateful that her triumph of 1976 was still remembered. Biles cannot be forgotten. She has single-handedly taken her sport out of its niche and into the wider world. At 1.42m she has made us look up to her. If we know the width of a beam (10cm), then it’s because she made us that interested.

Ballet dancers started the evening in tutus, then aerialists in leotards raised the bar. Over four apparatus, gymnasts take a total of roughly 220 seconds only but it is fraught with peril. A Chinese athlete fell off the uneven bars, a Romanian off the beam. They hurt, chalk their hands and resume. Size in gymnastics belies toughness.

As grace befriended precision, and power married balance, the cameras hunted Biles. As if to record what we might otherwise not believe. But the awe lies not just in what she did but where she’s come from.

It wasn’t just that

Biles pulled out of events in Tokyo in 2021

because of the “twisties” – where gymnasts lose their understanding of where they are in the air – but that she was open about it. In an era of stereotyping athletes as invincible, she reminded us of forgotten truths. Heroes are vulnerable and seeking help is fine. Maybe this is her truest greatness.

With help she has returned, into a stadium and onto a podium. “I’m super proud of my performance tonight and the fight that I’ve had for the last three years, mentally and physically. Just to get back competing on a world stage is an amazing experience.”

Biles wore a tiny goat on a chain later and it seemed appropriate. Larissa Latynina won a record 18 Olympic medals in gymnastics and Comaneci had a perfect 10 in 1976 in the old scoring system. Greatest Of All Time is only an opinion and Biles said “it is crazy that I am in the conversation of greatest of all athletes”.

Some might disagree, but this isn’t a woman to idly challenge. When the heat rose in Paris, she did what she’s always done. Floored the competition.