HARTFORD, Conn. — For years, the brightest spotlight in gymnastics has followed Simone Biles everywhere. This weekend, the gargantuan expectations traveled with Biles here to XL Center, and under the immense pressure of an Olympic year, she delivered a spectacular performance.
As she so often does, Biles began her season with an all-around title Saturday evening at the U.S. Classic, and she secured the victory by a massive margin. Biles’s final score of 59.500 was nearly two points ahead of runner-up Shilese Jones, who tallied a 57.650 after an excellent outing. Jones, like every other top gymnast in the world, doesn’t quite have difficult enough routines to keep pace with Biles. So when Biles avoids major errors, as she did Saturday, she is unstoppable.
Shrieking fans, mesmerized by Biles’s every move, filled the venue, and Biles’s name was all over the arena via posters made by hand in the arena concourse. With 37 world and Olympic medals, her fame extends beyond gymnastics and beyond sports. The attention is inescapable, and it intensifies in an Olympic year. But here, Biles was at her best, a positive sign as she heads toward the Paris Games.
Biles soared through the air as she performed the Yurchenko double pike, the most difficult vault in women’s gymnastics that now bears Biles’s name. Unlike last year, Biles did so without her coach standing on the mat for safety, which led to a half-point deduction. On an element that requires so much height, Biles remarkably had too much power and took a couple of large steps backward. She stayed on her feet to earn a 15.600, the highest mark of the evening.
Biles had secure routines on beam (14.550 for second place) and floor (14.800 for first). Finishing the meet on bars, her weakest event, Biles made it through smoothly without any errors for a 14.550. After she took off her grips, she waved to the crowd. Many excitedly waved back.
Last year, Biles proved she was still the best gymnast in the world — despite what happened in Tokyo, when her gold medal hopes unraveled because of a disorienting mental block. After she withdrew from multiple finals, her competitive future seemed uncertain. Biles eventually eased back into training and then to competition last summer.
As she prepares for her third Olympics, Biles didn’t simply replicate her routines from her successful 2023 season; she added more difficult skills. She performed the triple-twisting double tuck on floor, another skill named for Biles but one she didn’t include in her routine last year. She also unveiled a new dismount combination on bars.
For Biles, this was a key first step on this year’s path to the Games. Only she and Jones seem nearly certain to earn a spot on the U.S. team. Jones performed a fantastic bars routine to win the apparatus title with a 15.250.
Sunisa Lee and Gabby Douglas, a pair of past Olympic all-around champions, are trying to return to the Olympics. But Douglas withdrew from the U.S. Classic after struggling on bars, her first event. Lee competed on only vault, beam and floor, and she had a strong beam routine for a 14.600, the best score of the meet on that apparatus. But she still needs to showcase similar success on bars, her signature event.
Meanwhile, two other Olympians seemed to improve their chances to make the Paris team. Tokyo Olympians Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey finished third and fourth, respectively. Chiles reasserted her status as a steady all-rounder, and Carey successfully executed difficult skills on vault and floor.
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