Simone Biles isn’t looking past the next four gymnastics meets and her competitive career perhaps culminating at the Tokyo Games, but those close to her are planting a different seed: a potential third Olympics in 2024.
Biles plans to compete four more times in 2021 -- at the U.S. Classic in May, the U.S. Championships in early June, the Olympic Trials in late June and her second Olympics in July and August. After that, the 36-city Gold Over America Tour -- fittingly spelling out GOAT.
Biles, 24, said earlier in this Olympic cycle that she planned to make the Tokyo Olympics her final competition. But in interviews in the last year and a half, she repeatedly left open the possibility of a comeback at some point in the next cycle.
On Wednesday, Biles cracked open the door wider than ever, even if it may still end up shutting. She said she’s not sure about post-2021 plans because her coaches, Cecile and Laurent Landi, are from the 2024 Olympic host nation of France.
“They’ve kind of guilted me to at least being a specialist [competing on one or two events rather than the all-around] and coming back,” said Biles, who in 2024 will be older than any previous U.S. Olympic female gymnast since 1952. “But the main goal is 2021 Olympics first, tour and then we’ll have to see.”
Previously, Biles’ mom, Nellie, reportedly said that she wanted her to continue on as a specialist.
“Mom doesn’t know how my body feels on the inside,” Biles, who in 2018 became the first non-teen to win the U.S. women’s all-around title since 1971, said, according to the Houston Chronicle in January.
Biles is feeling strong enough now that she plans to debut in at least one of those pre-Olympic meets the Yurchenko double pike vault, which no woman has landed in competition.
If Biles performs it at the Olympics, it will be named after her in the Code of Points. Biles already has four skills named after her among vault, balance beam and floor exercise.
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