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Simone Biles is officially headed to her third Olympics. Widely considered the G.O.A.T. of gymnastics, the decorated athlete secured her third Olympic bid by dominating during the all-around competition at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials in Minneapolis on Sunday. Biles, who edged out fellow gymnast heavyweights like Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Jade Carey to place first during the competition, told reporters she was ready for her upcoming journey to Paris this month.
"This is definitely our redemption tour," Biles said of the new U.S. women’s gymnastics team, which includes Lee, Chiles, Carey, and newcomer Hezly Rivera, per People. "I feel like we all have more to give."
The comeback theme is fitting as the five-person group selected to represent the U.S. in the 2024 Olympics were all at the 2020 games in Tokyo (which took place in 2021), except for 16-year-old Rivera. While her teammates earned a number of medals during the competition, Biles was forced to suddenly withdraw from most of her events, due to her mental health and what gymnasts call the “twisties.”
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Biles said the group was going into the Paris games with a different mentality than in Tokyo. “We’re more mature, we’re smarter, we’re more consistent,” she told reporters. “We weren't under the best circumstances…but I feel like we have a lot of weight on our shoulders to go out there and prove that we're better athletes.”
It’s not surprising that Biles slayed the Olympic trials, considering the seven-time Olympic medalist earned praise–and even a shoutout from Taylor Swift–when the NBC Olympics & Paralympics account shared a video of Biles’s floor routine on X (formerly Twitter).
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Set to Swift’s 2017 hit “...Ready for it?” the athlete aced a tricky triple-double in the video, and the “Cruel Summer” singer was floored. "Watched this so many times and still unready,” Swift wrote in the comments section. “She’s ready for it tho.”
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