Simone Biles cements status as greatest gymnast with record-breaking world championship

Geoff Bennett:

Simone Biles has made history with an incredible comeback after a two-year hiatus, cementing her GOAT status by becoming the most decorated gymnast of all time this weekend.

Biles competed in the World Artistic Gymnastic Championships in Belgium, where she took home four gold medals. That brings her to a total of 37 medals between World Championships and the Olympics. Biles won two of those medals this weekend in the balance beam and bar events.

To discuss Biles' return to competition, we're joined now by Christine Brennan of USA Today.

Christine, it's always great to see you.

So, Simone Biles is now the most decorated gymnast in history, male or female, 37 medals, as we mentioned, a whopping 27 of which are gold. Have we ever seen anything like this in any sport, especially given all that Simone Biles has overcome?

Christine Brennan, USA Today:

Geoff, I think because of what you just said, all the things she's had to deal with, being a survivor of the most horrific sexual abuse scandal in sports history, domestic or international, the Larry Nassar horrors, being abused in that way. being someone who, as we know from two years ago, went through the twisties.

That was the getting lost in the air, the mental block and the difficulties that she had, to the point where she had to withdraw from several events at the Tokyo Olympics. Being 26 years old, having lived through all of that, and coming back to have the week of her life athletically in terms of the physical prowess that we know she's had going all the way back to the Rio Olympics, actually going all the way back 10 years ago to her first World Championship, and the ability to put that all together in a sport that is truly a high-wire act.

You hold to breath at almost every one of those disciplines. And everything she does, being an incredible high-flying act on the floor exercise, of course, the vault that she's known for, all the other exercises that are just literally a millimeter one way or the other and there's no medal at all or you're falling off.

It's a — it turns out to be something that is — obviously, you can't come back from. And yet, time and again, Geoff, she was not only good, but she was great, the greatest of all time, proving once again and showing us once again just how great she can be.

Geoff Bennett:

Well, how did she do it?

Because, to your point, the physical feat is one thing, but in many ways, the mental feat is quite another. How did her mental approach fuel her success?

Christine Brennan:

Well, that's it. It is the mental approach this time.

And it was things like — not little things at all, but visualization, and having quotes that she would read back to herself, and positive thoughts, talking, as she did in every press availability at the World Championships, about her therapist, and seeing her therapist while she was there, and talking openly about something that even, what, 10, 15 years ago, maybe even five years ago, athletes would have been reticent to discuss, the issue of mental health and needing help, wanting to talk to someone about that.

She has been so open. And what a role model she is for kids and young people and anyone really around the world, male, female, anyone in terms of looking at your mental health, all the — trying to basically take everything that she remembered about the Tokyo Olympics a little bit more than two years ago and move that out of her head, so that she could focus on the task at hand.

And that's no small feat, because it was such a devastating time for her at those Olympic Games in 2021. She was just vilified on social media. She's talked about that, trying to move Twitter and other — or X — and other of these social media sites away from the top of her phone.

She's talked about wanting to just focus on what she cares about. And, interestingly, Geoff, she talks about going meet by meet. In other words, she's not going to try to tell us what she's planning to do maybe in the next year. She's looking from one meet to the next, step by step, a very smart approach, but one that a lot of athletes won't use.

But she has now conditioned herself to understand, this is how she can achieve her best in the arena by being at her best with her mental health.

Geoff Bennett:

Well, let's talk more about her performance in the arena, because her balance beam routine on Sunday was near perfect.

All this precision, I mean, she's still proving that she is the one to beat.

Christine Brennan:

Oh, she is.

She is the great — we throw around GOAT a lot, whether we're talking about Tom Brady or Serena Williams or whomever, Michael Phelps, but there's no doubt that Simone Biles is the GOAT, the greatest of all time in gymnastics. And, again, I mentioned earlier, she's 26.

Mary Lou Retton, a name a lot of people might remember from the 1984 Olympics a million years ago, she was 16. So this was a little kid's sport. And I think, of course, now we have seen in part because of Simone Biles and in part because of the push and the understanding of the abuse, whether it would be the horrors of Larry Nassar or just the physical pounding that the body takes of a young child, young girl, young boy, the growth plates, et cetera, it's now becoming a sport for people who are a little bit older.

And Simone has led the way there too. So that's — that veteran status that she has now, that savvy is also allowing her to achieve greatness. She's not necessarily pushing the envelope every moment, in other words, playing it smart, being smart, knowing that she's the best ever.

So she doesn't always have to try to create new things, but just be — as I said, play it smart at the key moments to win these gold medals and to also show herself that she's back and that she can compete at this high level.

Geoff Bennett:

What about competing in the Paris Olympics? Has she said anything about that?

Christine Brennan:

The Paris Olympics are in July and August next year. So they're coming up quickly.

And that's a whole different set of pressure because that's many more — as you well know, so many more reporters, so many more questions, all the promos, all the commercials, all the things that she will be asked to do. She's going to — as she said, she's going to have to say no a lot, because what she learned from Tokyo, she's going to try to take that into this run-up to Paris.

My sense is, she will be in Paris at those Olympics at the age of 27. She would be by far the most discussed and talked-about athlete going into those Olympics. But, as she has said, she is not going to make that decision. She's going to listen to her body and, even more important, listen to her mind as she goes through these next few months.

Geoff Bennett:

Christine Brennan of USA Today, thanks so much for your time. We appreciate it.

Christine Brennan:

Thank you, Geoff.