Paris Olympics: Simone Biles tweaks leg during gymnastics qualifier, still dominates

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PARIS — Calf injury?

Who cares?

The GOAT has arrived at the Paris Olympics and it apparently is going to take more than a tweak, a limp and some nervous moments to slow her down.

Simone Biles suffered a left calf injury during qualifications here at the Paris Olympics, but in a nod to her dominance, she was still strong enough to almost certainly qualify for the all-around competition as well as the finals on three of the four disciplines — beam, floor and vault.

Just moments after giving a near-flawless beam, Biles appeared to have injured herself during a warm-up tumbling pass on the floor exercise.

Her individual coach, Cecile Landi, said Biles “just [felt] a little pain in her calf. She felt it a little bit on the floor [and] we taped it a little."

Landi said Biles felt a similar soreness a couple weeks ago but it went away. When asked if there were concerns about Biles being healthy enough to compete in these Games, Landi replied, “No, not at the moment.”

Biles briefly left the floor with Team USA's Dr. Marcia Faustin. She appeared to say, “It hurts to push off,” on the NBC broadcast. Panic rippled.

Biles reappeared with a wrapped ankle and a slight, if noticeable, limp.

While it appeared she was favoring her left leg, she still powered through a high difficulty floor routine to score 14.600, which left her ranked first in the competition and almost assuredly put her in the floor finals. Qualification won’t officially close until all five subdivisions compete, a process that will run into late Sunday night in Paris.

Biles followed that with an astounding 15.300 on vault, also No. 1 in the competition at the time. She previously recorded a competition-best 14.733 on beam. She concluded with a 14.333 on bars, which may not be enough to qualify for finals.

Biles' 59.566 all-around score was tops in the field after two subdivisions of competition. She will almost assuredly be joined in the all-around final by Suni Lee, who finished with a score of 56.132, good for second overall at the time.

Biles’ injury first caused a panic to sweep through USA Gymnastics. She not only limped, but hopped down stairs and at one point playfully crawled back from a practice run on the vault. “It’s not appropriate for me to say what I was thinking [at that moment],” Team USA technical lead Chelssie Memmel said with a laugh.

Not long after Biles was waving to a packed — and concerned — crowd inside Bercy Arena that included celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Anna Wintour, Nick Jonas, John Legend and Chrissy Teigan, among others. Ubiquitous Team USA fan Snoop Dogg was also in attendance.

Biles left everyone with renewed appreciation for the competitor she is.

“Incredible,” Memmel said. ”She is an outstanding gymnast and person and what she is able to do [when] she had some soreness or something in her lower leg is remarkable.”

“It’s was pretty amazing,” echoed Landis.

Biles won the all-around gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics but had to miss the competition in Tokyo in 2021 after suffering from a case of the “twistees,” which impacts aerial awareness. Lee stepped up and won gold in the event after Biles dropped out.

Additional likely American individual final qualifiers include Biles and Jade Carey on vault, Biles and Lee on beam, Lee on bars and Biles and Jordan Chiles on floor.

The next competition is Tuesday evening here when the Americans look to reclaim gold in the team final. Biles is expected to anchor the event, perhaps even performing in all four disciplines. Team USA coaches, however, have previously said they would leave it up to Biles if she wanted to sit out one of the events for physical or mental rest and leave it to her quite capable teammates — Lee, Carey, Chiles and Hezley Rivera.

“I don’t want to say, ‘You are keeping us all together, we are relying on you and you alone,’” Chellsie Memmel, the Team USA technical lead, said prior to qualifying.

That may be even more necessary now.

Biles' performance suggests she can survive whatever ails her but the impact injury was obvious. She limped after her vaults and hopped down steps. At one point she playfully crawled, as if to spare her pain, but soon popped back up and waved to fans who had come to see her in the packed Bercy Arena.

Biles is 27 and the oldest American female gymnast since the 1950s when the sport was vastly different. She has said her age is a major consideration in how she prepares for competition.

“Recovery, I just have to take it a little more serious,” Biles said last month. “Back in Rio [in 2016] I never had to do anything, I never had tape, anything, I was a little hamster on a wheel, always running.”