Simone Biles is back and she’s here to let us know.
After earning an all-around score of 59.566 during qualifying for the Paris Olympics, leading all competitors, Biles posted a video on TikTok celebrating her achievement by rapping Monaleo’s “Don Who Leo.”
“Get off that Don Julio,” the rhyme begins. “Pretend you’re an idiot.
“Slut, I called your fucking phone, that’s how you do it, right?”
While some may not have appreciated the lyrics, many Billes fans were just as excited as she was on Sunday.
“I love her so much lmaooo,” wrote one excited fan.
Team USA’s Simone Biles competes in the women’s gymnastics at the Bercy Arena
Biles posted a video on TikTok in which she raps on some of Monaleo’s tracks ‘Don Who Leo’
Others felt Biles was showing off after he drew a crowd of celebrities on Sunday, including Ariana Grande and Tom Cruise.
“She said I know all these celebrities are coming to see me but I will always be 100% myself and have fun and be the g*****n greatest,” one post read. “Welcome to the Simone show. I love her. Always been the best in every way.”
Biles and the rest of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team took to the Bercy Arena floor on Sunday in leotards adorned with thousands of crystals, the kind of leotards designed to draw as much attention as possible.
Don’t mistake all that glamour for a lack of courage.
The oldest team the Americans have ever brought to the Games has been through a lot over the years, from health issues to personal losses. Those experiences have prepared them for whatever comes, Biles perhaps most of all.
So when the most decorated gymnast of all time felt an injury during her floor exercise warmup on Sunday, she didn’t panic. And neither did her teammates.
Biles retreated briefly to the back so coach Laurent Landi could mummify her left leg, then returned to help get the team going, which now looks as good as promised.
Biles, with a sore calf, topped the vault and floor, and reigning Olympic champion Sunisa Lee performed perhaps better than ever on the uneven bars. The U.S. totaled 172.296, which didn’t dampen expectations that Tuesday night’s team final would be more of a crowning achievement for a team that called this trip to the Games part of its “Redemption Era.”
“They’re happy and relieved,” U.S. coach Cecile Landi said. “On day one, we’re going to go to team finals, all-around finals and hopefully a couple of event finals.”
Biles gets her ankle taped after an uneven bars match during the qualifying round
Biles achieves her uneven bars routine during Sunday’s qualifying round
The score made it seem like everything was normal. That wasn’t the case for Biles, who Landi said had a calf problem that first surfaced a few weeks ago. Biles thought she had it under control until she warmed up with floor exercises.
After a few anxious moments, Biles was there, performing a new floor routine that had a level of difficulty that no other gymnast in the world could approach.
The same was true on vault, where she pushed her signature Yurchenko double-hook jump a little too far, proving that her calf was good enough to generate the speed needed to execute perhaps the most breathtaking skill in the sport.
“What she did, even though it looked like she had pain or something in her lower leg, is remarkable,” said Chellsie Memmel, co-director of the U.S. women’s program.
Yet it wasn’t just Biles — who is expected to be available for the remainder of the competition and who was feeling well enough later Sunday to post a video of herself lip-synching a rap song to her social media channels — who helped the U.S. open up more than five points ahead of Italy and China in three of the five subdivisions.
Lee, who has struggled with multiple kidney problems for much of the past 18 months that have caused her to gain a lot of weight and limit her training, looked as sharp as she did three years ago in Tokyo on the bars – her signature event – and finished second to Biles in the all-around.
Chiles, a silver medalist in 2021, erased the memory of a sometimes difficult performance in Japan by finishing third behind her teammates in early qualifying. The 23-year-old will miss the all-around final due to rules limiting countries to two athletes per competition, though she is likely to advance to the floor exercise final and is desperate to replicate the team gold that Russia claimed in Tokyo.
Team United States’ Simone Biles will compete in the floor exercise on Sunday in Paris
2020 Olympic floor champion Jade Carey likely secured a spot in the vault final while battling an illness that may have contributed to multiple floor errors, preventing her from defending her gold medal.
Hezly Rivera, by far the youngest member of Team USA at 16, was visibly nervous on the beam and uneven bars during her first appearance at the Games.
Teams compete in qualifications with four athletes per event, with each team dropping its lowest score. That changes in the three-up, three-count final.
With Russia out of the running due to the war in Ukraine, the toughest competition will likely come from Brazil, who will compete later on Sunday. The Brazilians are led by 2022 world champion Rebeca Andrade, perhaps the best gymnast in the world not named Biles for the past three years.
Italy and China were solid, especially China’s Qui Qiyuan. The 17-year-old posted an eye-popping 15.066 on the uneven bars, likely making her the closest challenger to Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour, whose 15.600 was the day’s best on an event outside of Biles’ 15.8 on vault.