Is Simone Biles retiring?
Simone Biles went into the 2024 Paris Olympics at 27 years old. That’s young to be a human being. For an Olympic gymnast, it’s practically geriatric.
At least, that was once the case. As we noted, she has redefined how much of the world imagines the best possible gymnasts.
Gymnastics as a sport was once infamous for extremely young, tiny women whose small — sometimes undernourished — bodies could ascend to greater heights. Simone Biles has taught the world that the strength of an adult athlete’s body can perform even greater feats.
Many people have been asking what’s next for Simone after the Paris Olympics. Perhaps too many people have been asking her that question, tbh.
“You guys really gotta stop asking athletes what’s next after they win a medal at the Olympics,” the Olympian tweeted on Sunday, August 4.
Simone then implored fans and followers to “let us soak up the moment we’ve worked our whole lives for.”
And Simone is having quite the moment in Paris right now.
Simone Biles is open to the future
The same weekend as her tweets, Biles vaulted her way to yet another gold medal in the individual competition. And she declined to rule out retiring — or coming back for the 2028 Olympic games in Los Angeles.
“Never say never. The next Olympics is at home, so you just never know. But I am getting really old,” Simone Biles told reporters.
At the time, the sounded like the plan was for her to attempt to tie both US swimmer Katie Ledecky and Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina for the most gold medals by any female Olympian in history. That is to say, nine.
But then, on Monday, August 5, Simone Biles fell off of the balance beam at Bercy Arena.
She was in good company; she was the fourth gymnast of the day, including fellow Team USA gymnast Suni Lee, to fall or falter.
With that falter, Simone pulled up short of winning a medal, making it impossible for her to tie with either record-setting Olympian this year. .
However, Biles quickly scored a comeback.
Another medal!
Just hours after Simone Biles’ balance beam misstep, she rebounded spectacularly with her floor routine.
This time, she nabbed a silver medal. Not her goal, but literally the next best thing to it. That is the nature of a silver medal.
While no one (outside of her competitors) looks forward to Simone Biles retiring, she will step back from the Olympics one day.
That will be at a time of her choosing. And gymnastics will be worse off without her.