Reigning Olympic champion Simone Biles is dealing with the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games by keeping up her tough training routine, astonishing fans with a display of strength and balance while she is stuck at home.
Four-time Olympic gold medalist Biles was hit hard by the postponement of this summer’s Olympics, admitting that the decision to put the games back to 2021 had caused her to question herself as a person and athlete.
Her immediate dreams have been dashed since she turned 23 last month, but the American – already established as one of the greatest gymnasts of all time – has been attempting to maintain her relentless training routine by testing her remarkable balancing ability in her front room.
In her latest video, Biles took part in a handstand challenge, moving across a mat on her hands while keeping her legs straight in the air in a snapshot of the poise and athleticism that has earned her a glittering haul of honours including 25 World Championship gold medals.
handstand challenge ??♀️ pic.twitter.com/D11uhLoG37
Biles has spent time vacuuming, drinking wine and walking her French bulldog, Lilo, in the aftermath of the devastating news that her draining preparations would not be rewarded with the summer spectacle, even considering retiring when the announcement was made as the coronavirus pandemic made the games inconceivable in July and August.
She broke down in tears when she learned during a gym session that the games would not be happening in three months, having initially supported the possibility of the Olympics going ahead when she was polled among more than 1,700 athletes by the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
Coaches Laurent and Cecile Landi have given Biles conditioning work to carry out at her home in Montgomery County, where she was cheered on and told to “keep going” during her handstand feat while a television appeared to blare in the background.
Stay home and stay focused! ? #PowerRunsInTheFamily #stayhome @beatsbydre
Reassuring fans that she has been following lockdown rules by avoiding any group training, Biles has demonstrated her supreme suppleness by filming herself working on parallettes.
In her first video of the weekend, when she held herself above a pair of red bars close to the floor, Biles commentated by writing: “Stay home and stay focused.”
Watching Biles perform in her kitchen, fellow World Championships gold winner Maggie Nichols wrote: “Wowza.” Former American Idol and Broadway star Jordin Sparks echoed her amazement, saying: “Wow…just wow.”
working wine to five
Retired US gymnast Alicia Sacramone, whose achievements include a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics and ten World Championship medals, joked that her “wrists hurt just watching” the handstand challenge, to which Biles replied: “They were definitely hurting because this was NOT the first try.”
The icon remains a critic of USA Gymnastics as a result of the child sex abuse scandal that is still the subject of multiple lawsuits, taking to social media on her birthday to tell them: “How about you amaze me and do the right thing…have an independent investigation.”
Of her own approach to training around her home, she added: “Can’t describe the pressure I be putting on myself.”
The world can expect more video reminders of her extraordinary talent if Biles’s words about her plans for the foreseeable future are anything to go by. “It’s hard to find happiness when the world is in such a chaotic situation right now,” she told the Houston Chronicle.
“But it’s nice to sleep in and spend more time with my dog. My days are kind of just all over the place now.”
