Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles is Sports Illustrated's newest Sportsperson of the Year, the magazine announced Thursday. The win follows Biles's historic career comeback and gold medal-winning performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
"I don't think the reality has set in of what I've exactly done in the sport," Biles told the magazine. "I can see it, and I hear it from people, and I see a glimpse of it, but the full magnitude I don't think I've realized just yet."
Biles is the first Olympian to earn the honor since LeBron James in 2012.
Biles subsequently returned to the top of the world stage in 2024, bouncing back after a bout of "the twisties" derailed her 2021 Tokyo Olympics run.
In Paris, Biles became the first gymnast to win two All-Around titles in non-consecutive Olympic Games (2016, 2024). She also took gold in the team and vault events as well as silver in the floor event.
With 11 Olympic and 30 World Championship medals, Biles is the most decorated gymnast in history.
Sportsperson of the Year builds an Olympic legacy
While Biles hasn't fully ruled out another trip to the mat, the 27-year-old isn't interested in discussing a potential LA 2028 campaign just yet.
"Because I've accomplished so much, there's almost nothing left to do. Rather than to just be snobby and to try again, and for what?" she said. "I'm at a point in my career where I'm humble enough to know when to be done."
USA Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles furthered her Olympics legacy on Thursday, taking gold in the individual all-around final for the second time in her storied career.
Brazil's Rebeca Andrade won her second-straight Olympic silver, while Biles's USA gymnastics teammate and Tokyo all-around gold medalist Suni Lee took bronze.
Lee is the first Olympic all-around gold medalist to medal in the same event twice in a row since since Romanian gymnastics icon Nadia Comaneci in 1980.
Biles makes triumphant comeback in Paris
Three years after the twisties threatened to end her career, Biles managed to put her Olympic stamp on what is likely the greatest women's gymnastics career of all time and a true comeback story for the ages.
Biles is the only US gymnast to win two Olympic individual all-around golds, as well as the first women's gymnast to take gold in two non-consecutive Olympic Games (2016, 2024).
She is now the most decorated US gymnast of all time with six gold medals, one silver, and two bronze — not to mention the opportunity to add to her haul in apparatus finals later this week.
USA Gymnastics finds a formidable competitor in Andrade
Biles has not lost an all-around competition she's competed in since 2013, but her friendly rivalry with Andrade dialed up the heat on Thursday.
Biles landed her signature Yurchenko Double Pike vault in her first rotation — the only woman able to do so — but her lead waned after a slipup on uneven bars. But with Andrade leading after two rotations, Biles hit clean routines on balance beam and floor, pulling back in front with a close 1.199 winning margin.
"I don't want to compete with Rebeca no more. I'm tired," Biles said with a laugh in her post-event press conference. "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."
Simone Biles is headed to her third Olympics, headlining a Team USA that includes a number of familiar faces.
Joining her are Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Jade Carey — both Lee and Chiles were on the Olympic team three years ago, while Carey competed as an individual qualifier in Tokyo and won gold on floor. Teenager Hezly Rivera is the team’s only newcomer.
"This is definitely our redemption tour," Biles said at the US Olympic Gymnastics Trials on Sunday. "I feel like we all have more to give.
"I knew I wasn’t done after Tokyo," Biles added. "Getting back to the gym, trusting the process, I knew I’d be back."
Biles spent much of the Tokyo Olympics on the sidelines after getting the Twisties. Lee went on to win Olympic gold in the all-around, but has struggled in the last year with kidney disease. She was emotional Sunday, telling reporters she "didn’t think I’d be here."
"I’m so, so glad I kept going," she said. "There were so many times I thought about quitting and walking away from this sport."
Joscelyn Roberson and Leanne Wong were named alternates, while leading contenders Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely, and Kayla DiCello all exited with injuries.
At 27 years old, Biles is Team USA’s oldest Olympic gymnast since 1952. And as a whole, this year’s squad is the oldest to ever represent the US at the Olympics, with Carey (24), Chiles (23), and Lee (21) all over the age of 20.
With 2016 all-around gold medalist Biles and defending champion Lee, the roster will be the first from any country in Olympic history to have two Olympic all-around champions on the mat as the quartet hopes to improve on their 2021 silver-medal team finish.
"Of course, gold is the goal," Chiles said. "But this redemption tour is not about that. It’s about us. We all went through so much in Tokyo, and to be back, I’m so proud of all of us."
Biles, however, is taking things one step at a time.
"I feel like success is just what I make it," she said. "I feel like right now I’ve been successful of competing at Olympic trials and making the Paris Olympic team. So then we’ll see from there on out."
The Paris-bound US gymnastics team will soon be selected, with the 2024 US Olympic Gymnastics Trials beginning tonight.
The women’s competition will take place Friday and Sunday, with 16 athletes competing for five available roster spots. Four alternates will also be named, with two of them traveling with the team to Paris.
While performance at Trials weighs heavily, a top-five table finish does not guarantee an Olympic berth. Only the gymnast that wins the all-around will be guaranteed a ticket, while the remaining four team members will be selected by a three-person committee.
Among selection criteria include difficulty scores, as well as results and consistency across all competitions extending back to last fall’s World Championships.
Four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles leads the contingent, having earned a record-extending ninth US all-around title earlier this month. Three of her Olympic teammates are also looking for another shot: Jordan Chiles, Tokyo gold medalist on floor Jade Carey, and reigning Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee, who's now in remission after chronic kidney disease nearly ended her gymnastics career.
Skye Blakely, who many predicted would make the Olympic cut this weekend, has been ruled out of the competition after suffering an Achilles injury during a Wednesday training session. The second-place finisher in the all-around at the US Championships, Blakely is not allowed to submit a petition for a spot on the Olympic team. Selection procedures only allow for a petition under an illness or "extenuating circumstance," with petitions because of injury not accepted.
Others going after a spot include Shilese Jones, a six-time World medalist, as well as four-time World medalist Leanne Wong and 2023 Pan Am Games all-around champion Kayla DiCello.
The US Olympic Gymnastics Trials women’s competition starts at 8 PM ET on Friday, airing live on NBC and streaming on Peacock.
Simone Biles took home a ninth All-Around title at the US Championships this weekend, extending her own record and setting the scene for a possibly dominant Olympics run.
Biles also won all four individual apparatus events she competed in: Floor, Beam, Vault, and Uneven Bars. Following the meet, Biles said she "couldn’t be more proud."
"I couldn’t be more proud of how I’m doing this time in the year and just gaining that confidence over and over, getting myself back in front of a crowd and just doing what I do in practice," Biles told the NBC broadcast on Sunday.
A 37-time world and Olympic medalist, Biles automatically qualified for the Olympic trials with her win. A third-straight Summer Games is now firmly within sight for Biles, who suffered from a mental block at the Tokyo Olympics that pulled her from the All-Around competition.
Biles took two years off from gymnastics after the Tokyo Games, emphasizing her ability to have fun as an essential component of her success.
"It took a lot mentally and physically to just trust my gymnastics again and most importantly trust myself," Biles said at a news conference after Sunday's competition. "I think that was the hardest part after Tokyo is I didn't trust myself to do gymnastics.
"Everyone says I look like I’m having fun, so that’s good because I feel like most of the time if I’m not stressing or having anxiety, I do feel like I’m having fun."
The reigning World Champion, the 27-year-old is once again looking like a front-runner to win the All-Around gold medal.
"Now, having gone to two Olympics, each one gets a little bit more stressful because I know exactly what to expect," she said. "I know exactly what I expect from myself."
Even amidst her dominance, Biles took the time to encourage her fellow competitors. Following a fall by Suni Lee, Biles offered up words of support to her former Olympic teammate, saying she knew exactly what Lee was going through.
"I dealt with that in Tokyo," Biles said Sunday. "I just knew that she needed some encouragement and somebody to trust her gymnastics for her and to believe in her, so that’s exactly what I did."
"I don’t think I could have done it without her," Lee said about Biles after the meet. "She’s been one of my biggest inspirations for a long time. I know that we’re kind of teammates and competitors, but she’s somebody that I look up to."
Three-time Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas has withdrawn her 2024 Olympics bid.
Douglas made it official when she exited the Xfinity US Gymnastics Championships this weekend, citing an ankle injury suffered during training this week. The move ends her recent comeback attempt to make the 2024 Paris Olympic team after an eight-year hiatus.
Had she made the Olympic squad, the 28-year-old would have been the oldest American woman to compete in an Olympic gymnastics event since 1952.
"I love this sport and I love pushing my limits," Douglas told ESPN. "I hope I can inspire both my peers and the next generation of gymnasts that age is just a number, and you can accomplish anything you work hard for."
A two-time Olympian, Douglas became the first Black gymnast to win the all-around title at an Olympics in 2012. In 2016, she helped the US to back-to-back team golds at the Rio Games. In February 2024, she announced her impending comeback and returned to competition the following April at the American Classic. She also withdrew from her most recent outing at May's Core Hydration Classic after a troubling start at the uneven bars.
Douglas plans to continue to train after recovering from her injury, with an eye on making it to the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
"I proved to myself and to the sport that my skills remain at an elite level," Douglas said. "My plan is to continue to train for the LA 2028 Olympics. It would be such an honor to represent the US at a home Olympics."
37-time world and Olympic medalist Simone Biles took first place at the Core Hydration Classic over the weekend, looking every bit the top contender she is.
Earning an all-around score of 59.500, Biles also earned the highest scores in both the vault and floor exercises. She successfully incorporated the triple-twisting double salto into her floor routine for the first time since the qualifying round at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and picked up the highest score of the night — 15.600 — on vault with a Turchenko double pike.
"I was just happy to be back out there," Biles told NBCNews. "As long as we’re there cheering each other on and hoping for the best and having confidence in each other’s gymnastics, then it’s going to work."
Cementing her place as the nation’s second-best all-around gymnast was Shilese Jones, who finished the competition second in the all-around and won the uneven bars with a final score of 15.250.
Reigning all-around Olympic champion Suni Lee won the balance beam event. While she didn’t compete on uneven bars, Lee is aiming to compete in all four events at the 2024 Xfinity US Gymnastics Championships, which kicks off May 30th in Fort Worth.
"I think I’m starting to build a lot more confidence on beam," Lee told reporters after the meet. "I think it’s super important that we start feeling the nerves now because it’s only gonna get harder."
In a surprising turn, three-time Olympic gold medalist and 2012 all-around champion Gabby Douglas wound up withdrawing from the Core Hydration Classic after a rough start on the uneven bars.
Douglas's first return to competition since the 2016 Olympics in Rio came three weeks ago at the American Classic in Katy, Texas. While she finished 10th in the all-around, she scored high enough in the vault and balance beam events to qualify for the US Championships.
"I have to give myself a little bit of grace," Douglas said after her American Classic appearance. "It ended rough for me in 2016, so I didn’t want to end on that note. I want to make sure I end on love and joy instead of hating something that I love."
While Biles's recent performance made her looked like a shoo-in for this summer's Olympics Games, four additional team members and two alternates are yet to be determined.
Of course, there are some familiar faces still in the mix: Jade Carey, who was on Team USA in 2020, placed fourth overall at the Core Classic while medaling in individual events. Fellow 2020 Olympian Jordan Chiles placed third in the all-around.
The US Olympic gymnastics roster will be determined at the Olympic Trials in late June, with athletes qualifying to compete at the Trials at the US Championships.
Star gymnast Selena Harris has been dismissed from the UCLA gymnastics team and has entered the transfer portal, the school confirmed Wednesday.
Harris, the 2024 Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year and a 12-time All-American, has two years of eligibility remaining. During her time at UCLA, she was one of the top all-around gymnasts on the team.
UCLA did not provide details about her dismissal.
B1G dreams won’t include Selena Harris for @uclagymnastics. The 2024 Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year entered the transfer portal Wednesday morning after being “dismissed” from the team. https://t.co/zQn10qIEyV
— Daily Bruin Sports (@DBSports) May 15, 2024
Harris has also not spoken about it, but did repost a Tweet on Wednesday confirming her entrance into the transfer portal. She has also removed any mention of UCLA gymnastics from all her social media bios.
When reached for comment by the Daily Bruin, she shared a message thanking UCLA fans for their support.
"Just wanna thank bruin nation fans for being the best supporters!" Harris wrote via Instagram.
A former No. 1 recruit, Harris was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2023 and earned four perfect scores during the 2024 season, while also winning the Pac-12 all-around title at the conference championships in March. She finished the regular season tied for first in the country on vault.
She competed as an individual at the NCAA championships, finishing tied for third place on balance beam after UCLA failed to advance.
LSU came out on top at the 2024 NCAA women's gymnastics championship in Fort Worth on Saturday, besting Cal, Utah, and Florida to capture their first-ever title.
The Tigers' win was far from a landslide. LSU took the first rotation handily thanks to 2024 All-Around winner Haleigh Bryant's team-leading 9.9375 backed by four additional 9.9+ scores from her teammates. But Utah then responded with three strong beam performances of their own, causing the Red Rocks to slide confidently into second place by the end of the second rotation.
By the halfway point, all four teams fell within .288 points of one another before Utah overtook the pack with a dominant floor showing after three rotations. LSU then went on to ace the beam event with Konnor McClain's meet-leading 9.9625 score, coming away with the highest collective score ever awarded to the event in NCAA championship history. The achievement propelled the Tigers to victory, ensuring them the title after the final rotation.
"This team is full of individuals that have incredible character and integrity and love for each other and all the things you hear from coaches when they sit at a podium like this in a moment of victory, but I promise you it's a real thing," said LSU coach Jay Clark in a post-meet press conference. "I'm just so happy for them."
Contributing to Saturday's atmosphere of excitement was the absence of last year's champion and this year's heavily favored Oklahoma Sooners. Hot off earning the highest team score in NCAA history just last month, the top-ranked Norman squad suffered a shocking loss in the semifinals, where five major mistakes contributed to a third-place finish and a season-low team score of 196.6625.
With Oklahoma out, it was truly anyone's game.
"Every team was out there fighting for their lives — all four teams, it could have gone any of four ways out there," Clark told reporters. "As much as I feel for what happened to Oklahoma in the semifinals, I think it made for a championship that became so packed with emotion because every team out there believed they could do it. It was just tremendous."
LSU is now the eighth program in the sport's history to earn an NCAA women's gymnastic championship.
They share the honor with Georgia, Utah, UCLA, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, and Michigan.
Decorated gymnast Simone Biles took to the popular Call Her Daddy podcast this week to open up about her experience at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, revealing she thought she was going to be "banned from America" for her performance.
After Biles botched her vault routine due to a bout of the "twisties," she withdrew from the team final as well as the all-around final in order to focus on her mental health. She later reentered the competition to win bronze in the individual balance beam final.
In her interview with podcast host Alex Cooper, Biles admitted to feeling like she let the entire country down by failing her vault attempt.
"As soon as I landed I was like 'Oh, America hates me. The world is going to hate me. I can only see what they’re saying on Twitter right now,'" she recalled thinking. "I was like, ‘Holy s---, what are they gonna say about me?'"
"I thought I was going to be banned from America," she continued. "That’s what they tell you: Don’t come back if not gold. Gold or bust. Don’t come back."
Widely regarded as the greatest gymnast of all time, Biles has hinted at a desire to join her third Olympic team in Paris, though her participation won't be confirmed until after the gymnastics trials in late June. She holds over 30 medals from the Olympic Games and World Artistic Gymnastics Championships combined, and if qualified, would be a sure favorite heading into this summer’s games.