Simone Biles has given an update since powering through a leg injury at the women’s qualification round on July 28, 2024.
The gymnast shared a series of photos of herself on the beam, waving to the crowd and with her teammates on her Instagram with the caption: “grateful to be doing what I love🥹💙”
And when a reporter asked how she was doing at the end of the competition, Biles responded: “As good as I can be,” according to CNN.
Simone Biles finished strong in Sunday’s women’s gymnastics team qualifiers despite some apparent pain in her lower leg.
While warming up for her floor exercise, which occurred at around 6 a.m. ET, Biles left the mat to get her left leg taped.
Biles “felt a little pain in her calf” during her warmup, her personal coach, Cecile Landi, said, according to NBC News.
The three-time Olympian went on to score a 14.600 in her floor exercise, putting her on track to compete in the event final Aug. 5.
Later in the competition, she used a foam roller to massage her calf after hopping down from the mat on one leg.
Despite some limping, 2016’s all-around gold medalist she went on to receive a 15.800 on vault after nailing the “Biles II” — one of five original skills named after her — and a 14.433 on the uneven bars.
Her overall score in the qualifiers came out to 59.566, securing her place as one of the U.S.’s representatives in the all-around final Aug. 1, alongside defending champ Sunisa Lee.
After the qualifier, U.S. national team technical lead Chellsie Memmel expressed concern over Biles’ lower leg.
“I haven’t even got to speak to Simone. I need to speak with our team, our medical team, but I don’t have an answer about that. I just first and foremost, I just want to make sure she’s physically okay,” Memmel said, per NBC News.
Here’s what we know so far.
Is Simone Biles injured?
After the round, Landi said the pain Biles felt in her calf isn’t new and was bothering the Olympian several weeks ago, NBC News reported.
However, pulling out of the competition was “never in her mind,” Landi said.
By the last rotation on the uneven bars, Biles was feeling better, her coach reported.
Landi was later asked if Biles’ future competing in Paris was in question.
“No, not at the moment,” Landi responded.
At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Biles withdrew from both the team final and the all-around competition after shakily leaving the mat from her floor exercise and vault performances.
The Olympian later shared that she was experiencing the twisties, a phenomenon of feeling “lost in the air” and disoriented during an aerial gymnastics move.
Biles has since shared that she’s no longer struggling with the twisties.
“I think before I was kind of pushing down my trauma, and now I’ve learned to speak on it and kind of release that,” Biles told TODAY’s Hoda Kotb in July. “I think we used to think of therapy as a weakness, and now I think of it as a strength.”
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