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Simone Biles' return: Gymnastics icon and 2024 Olympics hopeful heads to Paris trials after 'twisties' in Tokyo and marrying 'the sweetest' NFL star before attempting a comeback
Simone Biles is already the world's most decorated gymnast with a record 37 world and Olympic medals. And should anyone view those credentials as inadequate, Biles happens to be considered the sport's 'G.O.A.T.' by none other than legendary gymnast Mary Lou Retton.
But even if the 27-year-old Texan is running out of boxes to check on her superlative resume, Biles may still have something to prove. It was just three years ago at the COVID-delayed Tokyo Games, where Biles withdrew from competition due to a bout with the twisties – a temporary disorientation that occurs when gymnasts are spinning through the air.
Biles' decision ignited a controversy on both sides of the Atlantic. Some commended her for having the courage to prioritize her health and step aside on the sport's biggest stage, while others labeled her a 'quitter.'
'Well sorry if it offends all the howling Twitter snowflake virtue-signalers, but I don't think it's remotely courageous, heroic or inspiring to quit,' Piers Morgan wrote for DailyMail.com in July of 2021 - just months after quitting Good Morning Britain.
Biles did take some time away from the sport, but she stopped short of retiring. Instead, she returned in 2023 and has since won 11 events at the US and World championships over the last two years. Now, with the US Olympic team trials set for Thursday in Minneapolis, DailyMail.com takes a look back at Biles' return from the twisties, her new marriage to Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens, and the opportunity in front of her at the Paris Games.
First place Simone Biles smiles after the 2024 Core Hydration Classic at XL Center in Hartford
Biles stumbles after competing in vault at the Tokyo Games, where she battled the twisties
Born in Columbus, Ohio and raised by her maternal grandfather and his second wife in the Houston suburbs, Biles has dedicated much her life to gymnastics. She switched to home schooling in 2012 to allow her to train up to 32 hours a week and nearly enrolled at UCLA before deciding to turn pro in July of 2015.
What followed is unmatched in gymnastics history.
Biles would go on to win 32 US titles, 30 World medals, and seven Olympic medals, which tie her for the most of any American gymnast.
Her dominance began at the 2013 World Championships in Antwerp, where she finished first in the all-around and floor exercise. She soon reached legendary status at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games by winning Olympic gold in the team competition, the all-around and the vault - and Biles was only getting started.
After taking a hiatus in 2017, during which she co-wrote her autobiography and competed on Dancing with the Stars, she returned in 2018 to dominate the World Championships in Doha and, the following year, in Stuttgart.
Along the way, Biles picked up endorsement deals with Procter & Gamble, The Hershey Company, and United Airlines, helping her to reach a reported net worth of $16 million.
But for all of her success, Biles was also battling a hidden trauma.
As she revealed in 2018, Biles was among the victims of USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar, who is serving an effective life sentence for the sexual abuse of hundreds of young female athletes.
But like many of the victims, Biles doesn't just blame the decorated doctor who betrayed her trust. As she testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee in 2021, Biles also blames federal law enforcement and gymnastics officials who turned a 'blind eye' to the abuse.
'I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse,' a tearful Biles testified.
Biles poses for a portrait after training at Bannon's Gymnastix on August 22, 2013, in Houston
Simone Biles hugs her husband Jonathan Owens in October. He has since signed in Chicago
Biles is sworn in to testify during a Senate Judiciary hearing about the Inspector General's report on the FBI handling of the Larry Nassar investigation
McKayla Maroney, left, and Simone Biles leave the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing
She went on to add that the FBI, USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee all 'knew that I was abused by their official team doctor long before I was ever made aware of their knowledge.'
An internal Justice Department probe found the FBI made significant errors in and failed treat the case with the 'utmost seriousness' after allegations were first submitted to the FBI's field office in Indianapolis in 2015.
Of all of Nassar's victims, Biles was the only one to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Games, which were delayed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biles has never drawn a direct connection between the trauma of Nassar's abuse and her battle with the Twisties at the Tokyo Games, but did open up about her mental health struggles in an interview with The Cut from September of 2021.
Biles falls out of bounds during a vault during Women's Qualification at the Tokyo Games
'If you looked at everything I've gone through for the past seven years, I should have never made another Olympic team,' Biles told the magazine. 'I should have quit way before Tokyo, when Larry Nassar was in the media for two years.
'It was too much,' she continued. 'But I was not going to let him take something I've worked for since I was 6-years-old. I wasn't going to let him take that joy away from me. So I pushed past that for as long as my mind and my body would let me.'
Her coach Laurent Landi did make an apparent link between her abuse and her problems at the Tokyo Games.
'She can't even explain it [and] the doctors she sees probably can't even explain it to her,' Landi told The Associated Press in May. 'It's a trauma that happened to her and that came at a bad time and she could not handle it. It's as simple as this. She could not function. She could not be a gymnast at that time.'
Biles made the decision to step aside at the Tokyo Games before ultimately returning to win bronze on the balance beam for her seventh Olympic medal.
Biles and Jonathan Owens of the Bears record a video on the field before a White Sox game
As she later explained, Biles knew something was wrong when she became completely disoriented during the vault competition.
'It's so dangerous,' she said of battling the twisties. 'It's basically life or death. It's a miracle I landed on my feet. If that was any other person, they would have gone out on a stretcher. As soon as I landed that vault, I went and told my coach: ''I cannot continue.'''
Conservatives across the media weren't buying that as an excuse, and instead painted Biles as being oversensitive.
'We are raising a generation of weak people like Simone Biles,' conservative pundit Charlie Kirk told his listeners. 'If she's got all these mental health problems: don't show up.
'She's an incredible athlete, of course, she's an incredible athlete,' he continued. 'I'm not saying that — she's probably the greatest gymnast of all time. She's also very selfish, she's immature and she's a shame to the country.'
But those within the sport have been far more understanding.
Speaking to The Associated Press in August of 2023, longtime Oklahoma men's gymnastics coach Mark Williams explained: 'It's almost like a mythical kind of thing… When someone says ''the twisties,'' everyone shudders because it's bad.'
Biles would take a two-year break from gymnastics after the Tokyo Games, but it wasn't just the twisties that kept her away from the sport.
She had started dating then-Houston Texans defensive back Jonathan Owens in 2020, and the two would get engaged in 2022 before officially getting married the following spring.
(L-R) Kyla Ross (silver medal) of USA, Simone Biles (gold medal) of USA and Aliya Mustafina (bronze medal) of Russia pose after the Women's All-Round Final at the 2013 Worlds
According to an interview Simone gave to the Wall Street Journal, the two had connected a little before the pandemic over social media.
'He would say I slid into his DMs,' she told the paper. 'I saw him and I was like, ''Oh, he's pretty cute,'' so I said hi. And then I saw that he was in the Houston area, so we started chatting a little bit, and then we went to hang out a week or two later.'
Somehow, Owens was not familiar with Biles' gymnastics career before the two got together.
'A lot of people don't believe me when I say I had no clue,' Owens, who recently signed with the Chicago Bears, told Vanity Fair in January.
Biles wasn't bothered by the admission, but her fans were furious.
'I thought everything was OK, and then I go on Twitter and everybody's like: ''Divorce this man. He's mean!'' Biles told the 'Call Her Daddy' podcast on Wednesday.
'I'm like: ''He's the sweetest. He praises the ground that I walk on.'' Truly, I've never met a man like him… he truly goes out of his way to do anything for me.'
Biles competes in the floor exercise during the 2024 Xfinity US Gymnastics Championships
Much of their time time since then has been spent overseeing construction on the couple's $2 million mansion.
Biles has since made her long-awaited return to competitive gymnastics in 2023 by winning four golds at the World Championships in Antwerp.
And she was even better this month as she breezed to a ninth national title, all while cheering on her younger teammates.
'That's kind of what excites me because I think they have long careers ahead of them,' Biles told the AP. 'So if I can do anything to help them, right now and in the future, that's what I'm going to do.'
Now Biles is turning her attention to the US Olympic trials and, of course, the Paris Games.
And while she believes she's moved beyond the twisties, Biles has been speaking with a therapist, and will continue to do so throughout her summer competitions.
'I feel very confident with where I'm at mentally and physically, that [Tokyo] is not going to happen again just because we have put in the work,' she told the AP.