World Champion Simone Biles emerges the winner at the Core Hydration Classic on Saturday winning the all-around gold and marking the perfect beginning to her season leading to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games this summer.
Biles’ overall score of 59.500 was closer to two full points better than all-around silver medalist Shilese Jones and over four points clear of bronze medalist Jordan Chiles.
Biles again took the gold medal on floor exercise, as well as silver medals in the uneven bars and balance beam.
Moving on the road to the Paris Olympics for the Global Champion Biles will be the US Championships in Fort Worth, Texas, which will start on May 30, and the US Olympic Trials that will start on June 27 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Biles appeared in the field for the first time ever Saturday, with Gabby Douglas and Sunisa Lee – who had their own Olympic golds in 2012 and 2021 respectively – also bid to feature alongside Simone Biles at the event in Hartford, Connecticut.
Lee emerged the winner of the beam title with a score of 14.600 while Douglas stayed off from the competition after losing twice on the uneven bars.
The last time these three champions contested against each other eight years ago at the national championships, Biles came out on top, Douglas finished fourth and Lee finished 10th in the juniors.
After then, the three achieved enormous victory but each encountered their own difficulties, adding a comeback quality to their attempts to qualify for Paris, which started in earnest on Saturday.
Despite such a talented field, it is Biles who is still the star to watch. She withdrew from several events at the Tokyo Olympics after she suffered from what is known as the “twisties” – a mental block causing a gymnast to lose track of their positions midair – but is now looking to include to her tally of seven Olympic medals at Paris 2024.
Biles got a bronze in the balance beam in Tokyo but had an extended break from gymnastics after the Games before she returned to the sport last year.
Immediately after her return, she received four gold medals, as well as a silver, at the world championships and became the most decorated male or female gymnast ever, winning Belarusian Vitaly Scherbo’s record of 33 overall medals across both the Olympics and the world championships.
