PARIS: Simone Biles' sixth Olympic gold medal hung around her neck, and so did a twinkling little goat – just a reminder to the gymnast hailed as the greatest of all time that she truly belongs in the pantheon of sporting greats.
“I thought, OK, if it goes well, we'll wear the goat collar,” Biles said after winning a tense all-around final for her second gold medal of the Paris Games.
“I know people are going to be crazy about it, but at the end of the day, it's crazy that I'm in the conversation with the greatest of all athletes, because I still think I'm Simone Biles from Spring, Texas, who loves to flip .”
Biles, who has pushed the limits of her sport en route to an astonishing haul of 39 world and Olympic medals – 29 of them gold – has not been beaten in an all-around event since 2013 – when she won her first all-around world title.
She won four gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics and looked poised to burnish her Olympic legacy in Tokyo three years ago before pulling out of most of her competitions because she was struck by the mental block gymnasts call “twisties” .
“It's been eight years,” she said of the gap between her Olympic all-around gold. “It feels amazing. I was a little naive in the process. So I appreciate my craft a little more.”
Biles, who said she was unsure in the immediate aftermath of Tokyo whether she would return to the world stage, credits coaches Cecile and Laurent Landi, her family and her own willingness to diligently work through mental health issues with her ability to return from nearly two years absence and be even better than ever.
She needed all her mental strength after a mistake on the uneven bars left her in third place midway through the final, albeit just 0.267 points behind leader and eventual silver medalist Rebeca Andrade of Brazil.
“I was a little disappointed with my performance on bars,” Biles said. “That's not usually how I swing.
“I'm not the best bar swinger. I'm not like Suni (Lee) or Kaylia (Nemour), but I can kind of swing some bars, you know?”
After a few minutes to “recenter and refocus,” Biles delivered a solid balance beam routine to regain the lead, sealing the win with another dazzling, high-flying floor routine.
“I just couldn't believe I did it,” Biles said, adding that she was looking forward to three more finals — vault, beam and floor exercise.
“Now it's time to have fun and the hard part is over,” she laughed.
And just in case she needs it, she said, in her room at the sports village, she keeps a toy goat “just to have a reminder like, 'You can go out there, you can do it. You've done it before, so let's go.'”
