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Simone Biles Qualifies for Her Third Straight Olympics in Spectacular Style

Matt Krohn/USA Today Sports via Reuters
Matt Krohn/USA Today Sports via Reuters

Simone Biles will be heading to her third Olympic Games after sealing a massive all-around win at the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials in Minneapolis on Sunday.

The four-time gold medalist—who finished the trials with a two-day total of 117.225, over five points ahead of her closest competitors—will be joined in Paris by Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera. At 27, Biles will become the oldest female American gymnast to take part in the Olympics in 72 years, according to NBC News.

Simone Biles Wins a Record Ninth All-Around U.S. Gymnastics Championship

Biles’ participation at the games in France—set to open later this month—comes after she withdrew from several events at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 after suffering with “the twisties,” a disorienting phenomenon in which gymnasts temporarily lose spatial awareness in the air.

“This is definitely our redemption tour,” Biles said. “I feel like we all have more to give and our Tokyo performances weren’t the best. We weren’t under the best circumstances either but I feel like we have a lot of weight on our shoulders to go out there and prove that we’re better athletes.”

Biles returned to competition last summer after an almost two-year break. Since then she’s won a sixth all-around world title as well as her eighth and ninth national championships, both of which were records.

“Nobody’s forcing me to do it,” Biles said of her continued participation in the sport, according to the Associated Press. “I wake up every day and choose to grind in the gym and come out here and perform for myself. Just to remind myself that I can still do it.”

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