- S Korean court recognises misogyny as hate crime motive
- Couche-Tard executives in Japan to push 7-Eleven deal
- Martin targets mistake-free Australia MotoGP as Bagnaia lurks
- Tennis world No. 1 Swiatek hires stars' coach Fissette
- French Senate speaker 'astounded' by Macron 'ignorance' on Israel
- Israel strikes Syria, US pounds Huthis in Yemen
- India all out for record home Test low of 46 against New Zealand
- China says UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy to visit this week
- Iran Guards chief warns will hit Israel 'painfully' if attacks Iranian targets
- Pakistan tottering at 43-3 in England Test after Bashir takes three
- Zelensky in Brussels to defend 'victory plan' at EU and NATO
- Markets mixed as China's latest stimulus leaves traders wanting
- Climate-hit Pacific Islands plot landmark UN court case
- India collapse to 34-6 after opting to bat against New Zealand
- Israel strikes Syrian city, US pounds Huthis in Yemen
- Taiwan's TSMC posts sharp rise in third quarter net profit
- Pakistan's Sajid takes seven as England all out 291, trail by 75
- Kenya Senate to vote on deputy president's impeachment
- Bronski Beat's gay anthem 'Smalltown Boy' strikes chord 40 years on
- NATO to weigh Zelensky plan in US vote's shadow
- Trial into Brazil mining disaster to open in London
- Italy's Di Giannantonio to miss final two MotoGP for surgery
- Hard talk on migration expected at EU summit
- South Korea's Hwang Ui-jo faces four years in jail for sex video
- Israel pounds Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon
- India slams 'cavalier' Trudeau in Sikh separatist murder row
- 'Love match' apps rival traditional matchmaking in Pakistan
- Asian markets rally but China's latest stimulus leaves traders wanting
- UN report says 1.1 billion people in acute poverty
- Vietnam death row tycoon awaits verdict in new trial
- 'Our time has come': the female Indian director hoping to make Oscars history
- Bondi beach 'closed' as Sydney shores hit by 'tar balls'
- Dodgers smash Mets to seize lead in MLB playoff series
- China to almost double support for unfinished housing projects
- King Charles heads to Australia, a nation shrugs
- China to boost credit for property market, renovate 1 mn homes
- New York fight back to take 2-1 lead over Lynx in WNBA Finals
- Family feud reignites over Singapore ex-PM's historic home
- ECB set to cut rates again as inflation cools
- Malinin, Sakamoto headline pre-Winter Olympics figure skating season
- Prospective Paris FC takeover could transform French football landscape
- Asian markets rally, with eyes on China housing briefing
- China's underground lab seeks answer to deep scientific riddle
- China toughens Taiwan stance over president's sovereignty defence
- BTS member J-hope discharged from South Korean military
- How Indigenous guards saved a Colombian lake from overtourism
- Despite threats, Florida abortion advocate fights on
- Garcia Luna: Mexico's 'supercop' turned cartel abettor
- North Korea says constitution now defines South as 'hostile' state
- Vietnam death row tycoon faces verdict in new trial
Biles poised to reclaim Olympic throne after Tokyo tumult
Simone Biles is headed to Paris poised to cement her legacy as gymnastics' Greatest of All Time, an Olympic icon who transcends her sport in both triumph and defeat.
The diminutive dynamo dazzled at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, winning gold in all-around, vault, floor exercise and team events.
She arrived at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics with superstar billing and history in her sights, but withdrew from the majority of her events as she struggled with the disorienting and "petrifying" mental block that gymnasts call the "twisties".
Hailed by many as a mental health trailblazer but criticized by a few as a quitter, Biles has returned from a two-year hiatus, at the age of 27, as good as or even better than ever.
In 2023 she took her tally of world and Olympic medals to 37 -- a cache she started with her first all-around world title in 2013, when she was just 16.
Now the owner of a record six world all-around crowns, Biles remains a must-see sensation even among such superstars as NBA legend LeBron James and pop diva Taylor Swift.
More than seven million Instagram followers basked in the fairytale photos of Biles's wedding to NFL player Jonathan Owens, who has received special dispensation from the Chicago Bears to miss a few days of training camp to watch her in Paris.
Swift took a moment during her Eras tour in Europe to tweet her approval when Biles chose a phrase from Swift's "...Ready For It" to kick off her floor routine at the US Olympic trials.
But Biles's ascent has featured as many twists as one of her signature tumbling moves.
Tokyo capped a tumultuous period that included Biles's revelation, in 2018, that she was among the hundreds of gymnasts who were sexually abused by former Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar.
She was a vocal critic of USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee over their handling of the scandal and a leading voice calling for their accountability after Nassar was convicted and imprisoned.
Biles, who will be the oldest woman gymnast to compete for the US since Marie Margaret Hoesly in 1952, had to laugh when she was reminded that she poked fun at a 22-year-old Aly Raisman as the "grandma" of the 2016 US team.
- 'Always running' -
"I definitely have to apologize to Aly for calling her grandma because, whew, I feel like I'm way older now," said Biles, noting that nowadays her body feels it after a big competition.
"Back in Rio, I could do anything," Biles said. "I'd never needed tape, nothing. I was just like a little hamster on a wheel, always running."
Biles also pays meticulous attention to her mental health, "religiously" continuing the weekly therapy sessions she says are key to her successful return.
Olympics broadcaster NBC calculated that one tumbling pass in her trials floor routine saw her soar 12 feet above the mat.
She's made the Yurchenko double pike vault -- a vault so difficult no other woman has attempted it in competition -- a staple and it's now the fifth skill to be named for her.
"I think we always knew she could be better," says coach Cecile Landi, who with husband and co-coach Laurent Landi has shepherded Biles through her return.
"She's the most talented athlete I've ever worked with and so we just knew if she could get her mental game as well as her physical game, then she would be close to unstoppable."
Biles's path has been made easier by the supportive environment at World Champions Centre, the Texas gym owned and operated by Biles's parents, Nellie and Ron.
The couple, in actuality Biles's grandparents, adopted Biles and her sister Adria after they ended up in foster care, their biological mother unable to care for them amid substance abuse struggles.
Biles is joined on the US Olympic team by WCC buddy and Tokyo Olympic teammate Jordan Chiles.
Tokyo Olympic all-around gold medalist Suni Lee and floor gold medallist Jade Carey and 16-year-old newcomer Hezly Rivera round out the squad.
Biles, who was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022, knows that she and her teammates will still face haters who "want to see us fail".
But she's glad to be back on her own terms.
"Nobody's forcing me to do it," Biles said. "I wake up every day and choose to grind in the gym and come out here and perform for myself.
"Just to remind myself that I can still do it -- that's my why."
F.Bennett--AMWN