When Simone Biles needed it most, the GOAT came out and cemented a legend

PARIS — Resplendent in blue, sparkling like the Nile on a spring evening, a powerful woman in full command of her grace and power and commitment, Simone Biles grabbed the chain around her neck, her work for the night completed. The chain was not chosen at random.

It was a goat. For the GOAT.

“Some people love it, and then some people hate it, so it’s like the best of both worlds,” Biles said after coming from behind to capture the women’s all-around gold medal here at Bercy Arena, becoming just the second woman to win two all-around golds at an Olympics, and the first to do so in non-consecutive Olympiads.

“I was like, OK, if it goes well, I’ll wear the goat necklace — I know people will go crazy over it,” Biles continued. “But at the end of the day, it is crazy that I am in the conversation of greatest of all athletes. Because I think I’m still just Simone from Spring, Texas, that loves to flip.”

That hasn’t been the case for so, so long, and certainly not now. Not after Biles’ return from the most public of collapses, in Tokyo in 2021, her mental health in tatters for a variety of reasons. Not after she publicly advocated for her recovery, and for the recovery of others who dealt not only with mental abuse, but sexual abuse as well. Not after she returned to the mat and again asserted herself as the best gymnast of her era, and maybe the best ever.

Thursday’s gold medal gave her six Olympic golds, and nine total in the Summer Games. Only Larisa Latynina, from the former Soviet Union, with nine, and Věra Čáslavská from the former Czechoslovakia, with seven, have more golds among gymnasts.

Simone Biles made a loud, GOAT-worthy statement Thursday night, winning the individual all-around gold at the Paris Olympics. (Stefan Matzke – sampics / Getty Images)

But Biles has risen to the top of the gymnastics heap. She’s near the top of all the heaps.

I’ve seen Tom Brady win Super Bowls, and Tiger Woods and Steffi Graf win their respective U.S. Opens, and Michael Jordan win NBA championships, and Rick Mears win Indy 500s. And Biles was as breathtaking as any of them, when the moment demanded excellence, and the absolute best of the best from her.

Greatness doesn’t ask nicely; it shoves its way to the front of the line, announces its arrival at a time of its choosing, producing prodigious forces of skill and will that leave no ambiguity. And those who know better than anyone what it takes to do what she makes look so easy are as impressed by Biles as the rest of us.

“Have you seen her vault?” asked Dominique Dawes, over the phone.

“She does a Yurchenko double pike,” said Dawes, the four-time Olympic medalist, and member of The Magnificent Seven, the U.S. women’s gymnastics team that helped shape the modern era of U.S. gymnastics dominance with its collective star turn at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, when it won the gold in the team event. And Dawes was the first female U.S. gymnast to compete in three different Olympics. Biles is the second.

“I don’t think I’ve seen male gymnasts do that,” Dawes said. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m blind. But her Yurchenko. When she went through the twisties in 2021, doing the 2 1/2, I think she then made up in her mind, ‘I’m not doing that again. I’m not going to be in that predicament again. I’m just going to do a double pike.’ And that is spectacular, what she’s doing. The amplitude, the control of her landing. And the fact that she’s smiling when she’s out there is a testament to, she’s enjoying the journey, and she’s a great teammate.”

The speed that Biles generates as she powers down the vaulting ramp is something you can almost feel, half an arena away. It’s almost violent, like a defensive end coming off the edge. But then, she converts that kinetic energy, that power, into something so elegant and graceful as she flies through the air, under complete control of her body as it turns.

Yes, you can see it on your laptop or phone. But it’s even more striking in person. Because every pair of eyes in Bercy was on her, the way they’ll be on LeBron James or Steph Curry next week, when the basketball medal rounds are held in this building. (By the way, Curry and Kevin Durant were among the many luminaries in attendance Thursday to watch Biles cook.)

And, like all the GOATs, Biles saved her best for last.

After an uncharacteristic bobble on the uneven bars — her worst event — Biles was in third place after the first two rotations, behind Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade and Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour. Like all great champions, Biles had to stare down and beat back a formidable opponent in Andrade, the reigning world champion in the vault, who had the usual legion of Brazilian Olympic fans at her side, cheering her every move. Biles was stressing. Her stressing made teammate Suni Lee even more stressed.

“I don’t want to compete with Rebeca no more, I’m tired,” Biles acknowledged. “She’s way too close. I’ve never had an athlete that close, and it definitely put me on my toes, and it brought out the best athlete in myself.”

Biles went first on the balance beam to start the third rotation.

And the GOAT GOATed.

Simone Biles trailed after two rotations Thursday. A sparkling balance beam routine set her up for the victory. (Markus Gilliar – GES Sportfoto / Getty Images)

Her balance beam routine blasted her back ahead of Andrade and Nemour, with her dismount (I’m not gonna break it down into its technical aspects; who am I, Laurie Hernandez?) sending her into the evening air, then bringing her, gradually, back to earth. As the newspaper writer Emmet Watson said about Elgin Baylor: “He has never really broken the laws of gravity, but he is awfully slow about obeying them.”

(A moment. Big respect to Lee, the defending all-around champion, who smoked her floor routine to garner the bronze medal, with Andrade getting the silver. When Lee was done, the U.S. fans in attendance erupted in real, loving applause, waving their American flags, a tribute to someone who is genuinely beloved by the community. She ain’t nobody’s Salieri; she is a champion, and one of the toughest competitors ever to represent the States.)

But it was Biles’ moment, just as it’s been her era.

She has five elements in the sport named after her, including the aforementioned Yurchenko double pike, now known as the Biles II in the women’s game. And, Biles has a sixth move that she’s knocked out in practice would bear her name, too, if she tried it in competition!

So Biles stands alongside Serena Williams as the Black women GOATs in sports history, and if you don’t understand why it took, and takes, so much more for African-American women to not just be great, or not just excel, or be more than legendary, in spaces like this, there aren’t enough pixels to discuss it properly.

Explaining why your hair isn’t edged perfectly as you fly through the air and run and sweat, and being asked/demanded to publicly, loudly advocate for mental health causes, or for sexual abuse survivors, when that isn’t your comfort zone (or, because it’s no one’s damn business how she’s dealt, and deals, with those things) … I mean, can you imagine the stress? The burden?

Dawes may be one of the very few people who can appreciate that burden, of Black Excellence in a space as historically White as gymnastics. Dawes is opening four gymnastics academies in her native Maryland to give young people a safe space to take up gymnastics for the sheer love of it, not for the collection of medals and money. In Dawes’ case, her strong faith helped her move on from the public limelight, and help other young athletes find balance in their lives.

“Simone is spectacular,” Dawes said. “What she’s doing, especially on the floor and vault, is unheard of for a female gymnast. I’m just in awe of her talent, I’m in awe of her courage, and I’m in awe of the fact that she has been, which I think is a great thing, very outspoken with regards to the culture changes that are needed in the sport of gymnastics. With her, it’s not just about her athletic achievements. It’s really about changing the sport. And I love the fact that she’s using her voice and she’s using her platform for something that’s going to live beyond her athletic achievements.”

So, if Simone Biles, when the cheers fall silent at last, and her medals are put away, can find it in herself to use her platform to speak even louder, and with more force, to fundamentally change gymnastics, good for her. Great for her. And if she wants to move to a deserted island with her husband and just read the sacred Jedi texts for the next 20 years, good for her, again. Great for her. She’s earned the right to write her future in her own championship hand, in ink.