To become the GOAT, Simone Biles first had to be a turtle

PARIS – To end the Olympics she once thought would never happen for her, Simone Biles began her floor exercise routine on Aug 5 and did what she was made to do – flip and twist and thrill an arena filled with people there to watch her.

Every time she landed one of her wildly difficult tumbling passes, the crowd seemed to shout “Wow!” all at once.

And when she was done, standing alone on the floor in her sparkly leotard, the spectators rose to honour her – perhaps as much for her entire career as for a brilliant but flawed floor routine.

Biles stepped out of bounds twice during the routine, which was by far the most difficult that any of the finalists attempted. As a result, she did not win, as expected.

Instead, she received the silver medal, while Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade won gold by just 0.033 of a point. American Jordan Chiles, one of Biles’ close friends, won the bronze. When Chiles’ medal was announced, she cried – and Biles smiled and laughed while hugging her.

Proving there were no hard feelings, the American duo turned to face Andrade and then bowed to her from the lower platforms of the podium as the Brazilian stepped up with her arms raised high – a moment that quickly went viral.

Three years earlier, Biles withdrew from nearly all of her events at the Tokyo Games after becoming disoriented in the air, a moment that prompted her to consider quitting the sport.

On Aug 5, she finished the Paris Games with three gold medals and one silver (earlier in the day, she finished fifth on the balance beam after losing points because of a fall).

Her imperfect final performances did little to dull her lustre at these Games. On each day she competed, celebrities dotted the stands, making gymnastics seem like the hippest club in Paris.

There was Lady Gaga, Tom Cruise and Ariana Grande, and sports legends including Serena Williams, Michael Phelps and Stephen Curry.

After a day at the water polo venue, Flavor Flav, the rapper, said how much he admired Biles and wanted “to meet her, shake her hand and give her a hug and tell her how proud I am of her”.

“Not too many black athletes right now is doing what she’s done,” he said.

Billie Jean King, the tennis champion and long-time proponent of women’s equality in sports, said she “wouldn’t miss Biles’ performance for anything”.

The floor competition would be perhaps the final Olympic performance for Biles, who is known to her mother as Little Turtle, for reasons that take some explaining.

The 27-year-old arrived in Paris with her confidence growing by the day. Still, in the back of her mind was the possibility that she would have flashbacks from Tokyo. So she placed reminders of her gymnastics genius and legacy everywhere in the French capital.

On her twin bed was a brown stuffed goat to commemorate her as the greatest of all time, or GOAT, of gymnastics. On the wall above her bed was a cut-out picture of a goat’s head.

And tucked away in a grey velvet box was a necklace with a goat-shaped charm encrusted in 546 diamonds. She had ordered it around the time she won the US Olympic trials and would put it around her neck at the Games when she thought the time was right.

Her mother, Nellie Biles, has long viewed her in a more modest way – as her “little turtle”. That was the nickname she gave Simone when she was a young gymnast, a reminder that Simone should go at her own pace and be herself.

The idea of being a confident “little turtle” was the foundation for Simone Biles changing the sport.

Instead of enlisting in the army of gymnasts who complied with whatever their coaches told them to do – which was the culture in the sport for generations – Biles did whatever made her happy, at whatever pace she wanted.

Eventually, Marta Karolyi, then the national team coordinator, had to let Biles be Biles. That included breaking the long-standing rule that gymnasts had to be silent and obedient at national team camps, even though it meant that Biles’ giggle made other gymnasts giggle too.

“Simone was just so good that they had to be like, ‘OK, she can do whatever she wants’,” said Aly Raisman, the three-gold former Olympic champion who won the team title with Biles at Rio 2016.

Biles, of course, pushed the sport forward with some of the hardest gymnastics moves in history, including five that are named for her because she was the first one to execute them in a major international competition.

Andrade described her as being so good that she “is from another world”.

In Paris, Biles appeared to have more fun than she has had at a gymnastics meet in a long time. She started by making new friends in the Athletes’ Village and thanking old ones by giving them a gold heart-shaped pin with her name on it, which quickly became something of a collector’s item.

After she won the all-around gold medal, she finally took out her blinged-out goat necklace and wore it on the medal stand. The haters would have hated it, Biles said, and that made her happy.

“They’re really quiet now, so that’s strange,” she said, referring to those who called her a loser after Tokyo.

Biles’ agent, Janey Miller, said last week that Biles had nothing on her schedule after the Paris Olympics except for a 30-city Gold Over America Tour – yes, the GOAT – and a gala for the non-profit Friends of the Children.

That organisation pays mentors to spend time with foster children or other at-risk children until they become adults.

Biles was in foster care from age three to six because her mother struggled with substance abuse.

She said she wanted to be remembered for much more than winning medals – a record 41 in all, including from the Olympics and the World Championships.

Having been abused by Larry Nassar, the former national team doctor who is now in prison, she wants to be known for speaking in support of sexual assault survivors.

She also wants to be recognised as a voice for foster children and for mental health awareness, spreading the word that it is OK to seek help from a therapist, as she does every Thursday.

“I think for me, it’s really important to look back one day when I’m done with my career for people to say, ‘Wow, Simone was a great gymnast, but look at all the stances she took and look at how powerful she is, and look at what she’s doing now and helping out her community’,” she said.

Every year, she raises money for Friends of the Children when she hosts her Simone Biles International Invitational gymnastics meet in Houston. A cut of the proceeds from the meet and all of the money from the sale of a special leotard and a stuffed toy also go to the mentor group.

That toy, the mascot of the meet, is a turtle.

When her Olympics were done, Biles said that she was content with the way they ended, even though she finished with no medal on the balance beam and a silver on the floor exercise.

“I’m not very upset or anything about my performance at the Olympics,” she said. “I’m actually very happy, proud – and even more excited that it’s over.”

She has hinted at coming back, saying the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 were alluring because she could compete in her home country. But there are also signs she would not.

Biles herself has said she is “getting really old” and that she has a life outside gymnastics – friends to spend time with, places to travel to and a husband, Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens, to cheer on.

The night she won the vault final, she said that was the last time she would perform her dangerous Yurchenko double pike vault, having done it in competition since 2021.

Asked before the Paris Olympics about the possibility of retirement, she told The New York Times: “If all is successful, and then we’ll decide after that.”

And then, a pause.

“The sacrifices are getting to be a lot now,” she said in a quieter voice.

Raisman, meanwhile, said she could see Biles coming back for the next Olympics, even at 31.

“I feel like Simone will be a mum and then still be competing,” she said. “Nothing she does surprises me.” NYTIMES, REUTERS