Biles dazzles in Paris Olympics debut despite injury scare

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PARIS – Simone Biles made a blockbuster return to Olympic competition on Sunday, powering through left calf pain to get her multiple-medal bid off to a rousing start.
The American, aiming to add to the four gold medals she won in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, tweaked her left calf warming up for her second apparatus, the floor exercise.
It didn’t stop her from soaring through her signature Yurchenko double pike vault — now known as the Biles II — which even with a big step back on landing earned a 9.4 for execution for a massive total of 15.800 points.
She topped the qualifying standings in all-around, vault and floor exercise, was second on beam behind China’s Zhou Yaquin and just missed out on a place in the uneven bars final.
Even when pain in her leg had Biles crawling on hands and knees toward her teammates, coach Cecile Landi said there was never any doubt that she would continue.
“Never in her mind,” Landi said, adding that she was also confident that Biles would be ready to go for the team final on Tuesday and the individual events to follow.
“Pretty amazing,” was Landi’s assessment after Biles piled up 59.566 points in the all-around standings.
The United States, on a mission to regain team gold after settling for silver in Tokyo three years ago, topped the team standings on 172.296 points, leading Italy, China and Brazil — who were led by a powerhouse performance from Rebeca Andrade.
Japan, Canada, Great Britain and Romania rounded out the team qualifiers.
Landi said Biles was already feeling better by the time she closed out her day by sticking the landing on her uneven bars routine — receiving another huge ovation.
Biles withdrew from multiple events at the Tokyo Games as she battled the disorientating mental block that gymnasts call “twisties”.
She still went home with a silver and bronze and was lauded for speaking openly about mental health struggles.
After two years away, Biles has returned as good or better than ever.
At 27 she could become the oldest women’s all-around Olympic champion in 72 years and just the third woman to capture more than one Olympic all-around title.