Simone Biles refuses to provide an explanation. This is partly intentional and partly due to her inability to do so. When she’s at her peak performance, like she was during her record-breaking eighth US championship win on Sunday night, she describes it as being in a “fever dream.” It’s not merely going through the motions, but rather a feeling, a rhythm. In those moments, the doubts that haunt her on a daily basis, even after a decade of unparalleled success, fade away. There is no overthinking. No “twisties.” It all fades into the background. Her coach, Laurent Landi, considers it a skill, but Biles, at 26, refuses to go that far. Perhaps because she doesn’t want to. She spent too much time trapped in her own thoughts before. This time around, she is determined not to let it happen again.
So yes, she was smiling midway through a floor routine that captivated the attention of every other competitor, causing them to pause and watch, and earned her a standing ovation from a section of the sold-out crowd at SAP Center. However, she cannot explain why. When her coaches told her that she nailed every tumbling pass, she was genuinely clueless. “For some reason, it just doesn’t feel real,” Biles said. But it is real. Remarkably so. Ten years ago, she was a teenage prodigy who barely remembers her journey to the top of her sport. She was always focused on what’s next—world championships, team camps, Olympics. Now, at 26 and newly married, she is determined to truly savor her accomplishments.
The woman who scored a total of 118.40 in the all-around competition this weekend in California—four points ahead of second-place finisher Shilese Jones and well ahead of third-place finisher Leanne Wong—is not ready to fast forward. She won. And this time, she’s allowing herself to be happy. That hasn’t always been the case. Biles understands that her gymnastics career won’t last “forever,” even though for her, in a way, it has. Most elite gymnasts at 26, unless they’ve retired, are simply trying to hold onto what they have. But the athlete who became the oldest woman to win a national title since the event began in 1963 isn’t interested in that. Landi described Biles’ floor routine in the finals as the best he’s ever seen her perform. “I think it’s maturity,” he said. (Read more about the event and what’s next for Biles here.)