Simone Biles, the Olympic champion once again, has taken gymnastics by storm. In the 11 years she has been in the elite, she has not only dominated her sport like no other gymnast in history (not Nadia, not Olga, not Latynina, not Tourischeva, no one) and has become a world star who generates millions in income and total expectation (from Tom Cruise to Lady Gaga, not to mention Beyoncé and Taylor Swift), but she has also broken all the taboos surrounding her sport: that it is only suitable for girls whose career lasts barely four years of an Olympic cycle; that gymnasts have no life beyond training; that they are made to endure everything without complaining, relentless training, the pressure of high-level competition and even the most gruesome abuses.
Well, in this closed and mysterious world Biles stood in 2013, still with braces, and her first element of her own, a double somersault with a half turn that no one had ever done before. She won the World Championships and everything began to change. On the mat, where she has won all the possible titles (six absolute titles, all of which she has competed for, and more than twenty team and apparatus medals at the World Championships; absolute Olympic champion in Rio 2016 and a couple more in Tokyo 2020) and invented several acrobatics impossible for any other woman; and off it. First on the mat, where she has won all the titles possible … scandal which led to the imprisonment of Larry Nassar, one of the physiotherapists of the American team guilty of sexually abusing dozens of gymnasts, including Simone, and then when he prematurely abandoned the Tokyo Games due to a mental block and put on the table a debate that had never been discussed so openly, the health of athletes above their results.
Now the gymnasts are older, they have their own voice and they use it whenever they want. They express themselves freely on social media, they dance for everyone, they go out, they live. They get tattoos and paint their nails. They celebrate each other in public. In Paris, there are an army of women who have passed the age of twenty, whereas a decade ago, adult gymnasts were the exception. Chusovitina, the queen of veterans who is about to turn 50, is not there, but in addition to Simone (27 years old) and three of her compatriots, there is the Brazilian Andrade (25), the Canadian Ellie Black (28) or the British Becky Downie, who qualified for the parallel bars final at 32. And these are just the most successful examples.
Gymnasts are no longer silent and mysterious shadows behind their coaches, as was the great Nadia Comaneci. Some even get married and it is not a problem if they decide to leave the demanding and long training for a couple of years and then return to the elite with options, as Simone did.
So gymnastics has become multi-coloured, varied and exciting, thanks in large part to the brilliance of Biles and the good vibe she exudes. A brilliance that sometimes overshadows everything else. It overshadows the Brazilian Andrade, a physical and technical talent who would not have been able to had The Italian team, which was once a competition and which now takes comfort in winning when the American is not there (although at the last World Championships she was better on the vault). The magnificent Italian team, which is led by one of the D’Amato sisters (Alice finished fourth in the individual final), Manila Esposito (European champion) and the explosive Andreoli, and which has achieved an exciting and unquestionable Olympic silver medal in Paris. The wonderful Kayla Nemour, who has been fighting for years with France, is competing with Algeria and should become a medallist on Saturday in the parallel bars final. The explosive Jordan Chiles and the Tokyo Olympic champion Sunisa Lee, teammates. The Canadian Black, who is in her fourth Games and is a joy to watch on all the apparatus. The Chinese team, which maintains its otherworldly style and refined technique on the bars and parallel bars, so different from the rest… Even the unfortunate French squad, which ended the Games in tears but has one of the most exciting stars on the world scene, Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos. There is so much good gymnastics in Paris and so many stories to tell that we don’t even miss (or only a little) Melnikova, Listunova and the rest of the Russians.
So let’s enjoy Biles and all she represents. Her career will last as long as she wants it to. But her effects have changed gymnastics forever.
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