Simone Biles celebrates after competing in the vault final on Saturday.
Paris CNN —
The last few years of therapy and mental health work have turned Simone Biles into one of the most unstoppable forces in Paris during these Summer Olympics.
With an absolute blow-away performance in the vault, Biles now has three gold medals to take home to Texas – and she still has a chance for two more. With an average score of 15.300, Biles took home the gold easily over silver medalist Rebeca Andrade – the defending Olympic champion in the event. The bronze medal went to American Jade Carey, who completed her own comeback story from a disappointing showing in the vault in Tokyo.
Biles, who has talked about the importance of taking care of her mental health during these Games after each of her golden performances, has said she’s speaking with her therapist every morning before competition and religiously every Thursday.
“After all these years of putting in the mental work in, it’s paid off. So I’m super excited to be on this stage again,” Biles said Saturday after winning her latest gold.
A huge roar went up for Biles as her name was introduced at the beginning of the competition, as the pressure was heaped on her shoulders once again.
But unlike three years ago, when she suffered a case of the “twisties” and realized that her mind was not in the right place to carry the expectations thrust upon her, she met the moment with aplomb.
She took off toward the vault like a shot and absolutely nailed an extremely difficult Yurchenko double pike, also known as Biles II. She bounced on the landing and stayed standing tall.
The score was huge: 15.700. A 9.400 score on execution and a 6.400 on difficulty, but a 0.1 point penalty because her foot hit the line on the vault’s landing mat.
Biles’ twisting, flipping second effort – a Cheng vault that sees her shooting off like a bottle rocket on Fourth of July – was stuck perfectly in the center of the mat.
She surged into first place with an average score of 15.300, after her second vault was scored a 14.900. She set a lofty standard, more than a point clear of second place in the early going.
It was a throwing down of the gauntlet to Andrade, who did her best to match.
The 2020 Olympic gold medalist matched Biles’ Cheng vault, twisting and turning through the air while doing two flips. Andrade’s first vault scored a 15.100 — higher than Biles’ Cheng.
Her second effort was really, really good but it just wasn’t good enough to beat Biles. Andrade’s second vault scored high for execution – 9.433 – but her difficulty marks dragged her down. That’s what Biles can do that others simply can’t: Ramp up the difficulty and the execution.
In the end, it wasn’t even close. Biles is just performing on a different level at these Games. Andrade had been pushing Biles throughout the week, especially in the individual all-around on Thursday, but the American great has just been too much.
It’s been a long journey for Biles, from a 19-year-old superstar bursting onto the scene in Rio de Janeiro eight years ago, to the depths of despair at the Tokyo Games. But here in the City of Lights, Biles has truly shined the brightest of all.
The work on her mental health has not stopped as Biles runs rampant through Paris. She said she’s seen her therapist while at the Olympics and is going day-by-day to see if she needs extra sessions.
“The Olympics is such a draining process for the athletes. It’s multiple days of competitions so you definitely have to be on top of your mental as well as your physical,” she said, “so as long as we’re doing that then we’re good.”
And despite her scores of achievements, there are still people online who are making crass comments about Biles. But she notices they’re getting quieter and quieter.
“Obviously, the negative comments, they’re painful after a certain point,” she said. “They hurt, but I’m still in therapy working on all that stuff to just make sure my mental health is well. But they’re really quiet now, so that’s strange.”
