Simone Biles fights through apparent ankle injury to produce impressive performance on Olympic return
After she produced a flawless balance beam routine which scored 14.733 – the highest on the apparatus – Biles landed awkwardly while warming up for her floor routine and exited the arena before reemerging to get her left ankle taped.
She appeared in pain, walking with a heavy limp, but still managed to twist through the air with her usual force on every other apparatus, scoring an impressive 15.800 on the vault, 14.433 on the uneven bars and 14.600 on the floor.
Overall, she registered an all-around score of 59.566, the highest total as of yet and more than three points ahead of her teammate Suni Lee, though she and the USA team won’t have a confirmed spot in the finals until later on Sunday once every country has completed its qualifying round.
When asked by reporters if she was OK following competition on Sunday, Biles sad, “Yup! As good as I can be.” She didn’t stick around to talk further.
Biles has endured a long and much documented road back to the Olympics, the competition where she experienced a mental block known as “the twisties” that forced her to withdraw from multiple events, including the women’s team final, three years ago in Tokyo.
Biles kept moving throughout much of Sunday’s qualifying, rarely taking time to sit unless she was getting training, in an attempt to keep her ankle loose. While she was obviously in discomfort through the day’s final three rotations, she hardly slowed down and moved with the explosiveness that is her trademark.
Once she completed all her routines, joy seemed to radiate from Biles as she grinned, waved to the crowd and danced in celebration with her teammates.
She ended the second subdivision of the day leading in the all-around competition and having the top scores on the vault and floor routine – both of which came after her apparent injury – and the second-best score on the balance beam.
Gymnastics qualifying continues throughout the day on Sunday, so it won’t be until the evening in Paris for it to be clear who will go through to the medal competition on Tuesday.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
Despite her ankle injury, Biles showcased her resilience and skill in other sporting events, securing the highest score on the vault with 15.800. Despite the discomfort, she continued to demonstrate her explosive force, typical in her sport.
Despite exiting the arena to get her ankle taped, Biles returned with determination and performed exceptionally well on the other sporting events, even managing to score the highest on the vault.
