With her victory at the American Classic, Simone Biles proves that she's back, and better than ever

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Simone Biles is back. It was the story before the start of the competition at the American Clbadic Saturday in Columbus. And it was the bold title with exclamations, points, shouts on the rooftops at the end of the competition. Four gold medals. Four world records 2018. The five-year winning streak is intact.

Call it a return, call it back from a break, call it whatever you want. What Biles showed Saturday night was a thesaurus-scratcher of a performance; everyone simply lacked superlatives to describe the reigning Olympic champion. But there is this: Biles is, unbelievably, better than she was in Rio.

"I feel very good with where I am at this time of year," said Biles after the meeting. "I'm pretty proud of myself."

Two weeks ago, Biles did not intend to play ground or jump at this competition. Only 10 months after her return, she did not feel ready for the open competition yet. This month, it changed, and on Saturday, she made the most difficult jump of the competition, the "Cheng", got records in the United States on the two events of this quadrennial period and set records on the ground, vault, beam and all-around. Her score of 58.70 was the highest score in the world since her participation at the 2016 Olympics.

Despite all this, she left Columbus disappointed after a step off the field, a jump and a fall at the bars.

"I'm so, so sad," said Biles. "I'd like to be able to redo my routine because I did not fall once all this workout, and I really wanted to highlight the bars, but it's a good stepping stone to the championships "

With his scores, Biles qualified in Boston next month. But this meeting also allowed him to prepare for the competition season, to shake his nerves, test his new routines and recalibrate his competitive spirit. She did not have any other hopes than to have fun and find the joy of competing.

"I was nervous about how I was going to handle everything," she said. "Getting out of the bars, falling and doing a good routine, I was quite proud of the way I handled it."

Although this encounter marked his return to competition, Columbus offered a return to the sources. somehow for Biles, who was born 21 years ago at the Ohio State University hospital and has a lot of family in the area. Many of them, along with his parents and boyfriend, have encouraged her in matching red T-shirts. "It's so exciting for all my family to go out and watch me compete," said Biles. "And we have the chance to do an after-party."

Biles attended the Clbadic for the first time in 2011 (it was held in Chicago at the time) and she won the individual individual title in 2014 and 2015. The Clbadic is also where, in 2013, Biles entered a full competition and did not win. That moment, this failure, became part of his superhero tradition as his signature. This led him to reevaluate, refocus and refocus on his goals.

Over the next three years, Biles remained undefeated in general competitions and ambaded the most impressive summary of his sport, winning 14 world championship medals. National league titles and four gold medals and a bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. She is only the second gymnast in history to simultaneously hold the world title and the Olympic title and the first to win three all-around world titles.

After Rio, with his legacy as well anchored as the landings on his arches of Amanar, Biles paused. She participated in Dancing With the Stars, wrote a book and took time for a boyfriend, red carpet events, talk show appearances and family vacations. Then, last October, she decided that it was time to come back. But this time, his approach would be different. She did not return to gymnastics to strengthen her heritage or to increase the number of medals in her country, and she wanted to share her experience, her personality and her personal life with her fans, something she did not think she could do. The first time

"This time is for me to come back and have fun and really enjoy the sport and not set myself so many expectations because I have met a lot of people in the last quad, "said Biles. "I feel like I do not have to be so nervous, walking on eggs because we have already realized what we did in Rio, we are already Olympians at this stage, where before you were nervous that everything you did I come back and do what I want to do, and I do not do it for anyone else. "

True to his commitment to a newfound openness, Biles shares date photos nights with her boyfriend, former gymnast Stacey Ervin, Jr., and outings to the beach with her girlfriends on Instagram.She tweets when she hurts, when she struggles to workout and when something comes to her mind that she wants to share with her fans.In a January ticket shared more than 22,000 times, Biles revealed that she had also been abused by Larry Nbadar, a former doctor of USA Gymnastics and Michigan, serving a federal sentence of imprisonment and State for possession of child badgraphy. aggression. Biles knows that she has a voice that does not look like anyone else in her sport, a voice that's impossible to ignore, and she says she plans to continue to use it

"I think someone should do it, and I agree to be that voice, as long as it's in a positive way," said Biles. "I sometimes feel that my weight is heavy on my shoulders, but I feel very inspiring with the other survivors, but we are talking about all these things, and I think [USA Gymnastics CEO] Kerry Perry has to speak up and do her job and not let that come from the survivors. "

When Biles returned to training in October, she did it under the guidance of new coaches, Laurent Landi and his wife, Cecil Canquetequ-Landi Long-time Biles coach Aimee Boorman left the Olympics to lead the women's program at EVO Athletics in Sarasota, Florida, and Biles chose staying at the World Champions Center in Spring, Texas with the Landis, coaching Rio's team-mate, Madison Kocian, and knowing the level of gymnast they inherited, as well as the expectations that would come with accepting the position. [19659005] "You do not think Otherwise, you do not can not work, "said Landi. "You try to enjoy it as much as possible because there is a Simone for all the years, maybe there will be only one Simone she is special, it's fun to interact with this specialty because everyone is very good at it. "

For the Landis, this meant learning how to train all the gymnast, not just presenting to their new toy skills that they thought were able to compete.Biles is the kind of athlete who must want to be at the training and whose coaches must make room for laughter and fun as much as for the drilling technique.It also needs affirmation and the freedom to set small daily goals. "

" She doubts herself more than she thought, "said Canquetequ-Landi. "I thought that she was freer, we had to work to regain her confidence and make her feel u she was responsible even though we asked her to do something. no, I can not do it. So we think there's no pressure, play with it, have fun, and then she understands, "Whoa, I'm able to do that. You must have fun for her, so she wants to try. "

This was especially true in bars, a device with which Biles has a notoriously tolerant-hate relationship." She does not believe in her abilities that she may have on the bars, "he said. Landi. "It's more of a mental problem, she has more faith in me than in herself, and little by little, I try to make her pbad this belief … If I believe that she can do something, I tell her every day, you, Simone Biles, should believe a little more in you. "

These daily affirmations paid off – quickly.In the Clbadic, Biles started a completely reworked bar routine and new skills on the beam and floor." The fact that she has increased the difficulty of her Routines are not a surprise to anyone, but the fact that she has traced them less than a year after returning to training is unprecedented, "said Tom Forster, coordinator of the high performance team of the US National Women's Team. "Usually, [a returning Olympian] holds firm, and she overshadowed that and done a lot more, I never had it seen before, if it was any other sport like football or basketball, it would be in every newspaper. Unbelievable. "

But here's Simone Biles, a gymnast for whom it's no longer possible to set expectations." Instead, she continues to evolve and bring the sport with her as she does. the fact.