PARIS: Simone Biles' sixth Olympic gold medal hung around her neck, as did a sparkly goat – just a reminder to the gymnast hailed as the greatest of all time that she is indeed part of the pantheon of sporting greats.
“I was like, OK, if it goes well, we'll wear the goat collar,” Biles said after winning a tense final for her second gold medal of the Paris Games.
“I know people are going to freak out about it, but at the end of the day it's crazy that I'm in the conversation with the greatest athletes of all, because I still think I'm Simone Biles from Spring, Texas, who loves to spin.”
Biles, who has pushed the limits of her sport on her way to an astonishing 39 world and Olympic medals – 29 of them gold – has not been defeated in an all-around competition since 2013 – when she won her first world all-around . title.
She won four gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics and looked poised to cement her Olympic legacy in Tokyo three years ago before withdrawing from most of her events when she was hit by mental blocks gymnasts call “twists”.
“It's been eight years,” she said of the gap between her Olympic golds. “It feels amazing. I was a bit naive in this process. So I appreciate my job a little more.”
Biles, who said she wasn't sure immediately after Tokyo if she would return to the world stage, credits her coaches Cecile and Laurent Landi, her family and her own willingness to work diligently on her mental health issues, with her ability to return. from an absence of almost two years and be even better than ever.
She needed all her mental strength after a mistake on the uneven bars left her in third place halfway through the final, albeit just .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 like, I can swing some bars, you know?'
After several minutes of “recentering and reorienting,” Biles delivered a solid balance beam routine to regain the lead, sealing the win with another stunning, high-flying routine.
“I couldn't believe I did it,” Biles said, adding that she's 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 in case she needs it, she said, she has a toy goat in her room in the athletes' village “just to get a reminder like, 'You can go out there, you can do it. You've done it before, so let's go.
