Pure theatre. Bercy Arena, not far from Notre-Dame, was as American as an election rally on Tuesday night.
And the star of the show was given a stage on which to indulge her fans’ adulation. All the rest of the competitors were done, and the announcer declared: ‘The green light goes on for the United States of America: Simone Biles.’ She was left to perform her floor exercise — and you had better stop and watch.
The greatest gymnast in history did not disappoint, producing the highlight of the team final rather than merely getting the job done. And, so, this was her first gold medal in Paris, her eighth medal in an Olympic story of great highs and sad lows. Her team-mate Jordan Chiles, basking in their shared victory, hailed Biles as: ‘The GOAT-est of GOATS.’
So much emotion went into Biles’ manic celebrations and high-fiving. The mind went back three years to her torment then, when, aged 24 and at the peak of her genius, she was meant to sweep all before her, only to be brought low by the ‘twisties’, a psychological phenomenon that results in the sufferer losing a sense of direction mid-flight.
All those thoughts crowded in on Sunday night, at least on this viewer. Never mind her record of 29 — now 30 — Olympic and world gold medals, and nearly £15million of wealth through endorsements. Those riches are not a protector against emotion.
And as she was introduced — two-and-a-half hours before her final flourish — she failed to stop to wave to the crowd as the rituals demand. She had to be called back. She flashed a wide smile of embarrassment, but a happy one. She would have seen the Stars and Stripes predominating in the stands. Serena Williams, a fellow royalty of American and women’s sport, sat up there.
As Biles prepared for her first foray she seemed so strangely fragile, taking deep breaths, her eyes surveying the scene under long lashes, as she prepared for the vault. There was strapping down her left calf to guard against the injury she picked up in qualifying on Sunday. It added to her sense of vulnerability.
And to start on the vault of all cruelties. It was this apparatus that did so much to twist her mind. Its symptoms kept her out of serious competition for 729 days. She continues to spend time in therapy, even seeing her therapist on Tuesday morning, to get in the right frame of mind to purse the remarkable feats that are her trademark.
