PARIS: Simone Biles' sixth Olympic gold medal hangs around her neck, and so does a shiny little goatee – just a reminder to the gymnast considered one of the all-time greats that she truly belongs in the pantheon of sporting greats.
“I think, well, if it goes well, we'll wear a goatee,” 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 mad about it, but at the end of the day it's crazy that I'm in the conversation of the greatest of all athletes, because I still feel like I'm Simone Biles from Spring, Texas, who loves to flip.”
With 39 world and Olympic medals – including 29 gold medals – she has not lost an all-around since 2013 – when she won her first world all-around. title.
She won four gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics and looked set to burnish her Olympic legacy in Tokyo three years ago when she withdrew from most of her events after being outraged by mental handicap gymnasts calling her “twisties”.
“It's been eight years,” she said of the gap between her Olympic gold. “It feels amazing. I was a little naive in the process. So I appreciate my art a little more.”
Biles, who was unsure about returning to the world stage after Tokyo, credits coaches Cecile and Laurent Landy, her family and her own willingness to work through her mental health issues. After almost two years of absence and better than ever.
A mistimed attempt on the uneven bars cost her all of her mental strength as she dropped to third place midway through the final, although she finished just .267 behind leader and eventual silver medalist Rebecca Andrade of Brazil.
“I was a little disappointed with my performance on bars,” Beals said. “Usually that's how I swing.
“I'm not the best bar swinger. I'm not like Suni (Lee) or Kaylee (Naymore), but, like, I can swing some bars, you know?
After a few minutes of “refocusing and refocusing,” Biles delivered a solid balance beam routine to regain the lead, sealing the win with another dazzling, high-flying floor routine.
“I can'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 if 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 already done it, so let's go.''