Sub-division two of women’s gymnastics qualifying was the hottest ticket in town, with rapper Snoop Dogg, actor Tom Cruise, Vogue editor Anna Wintour and singer Ariana Grande among those at the arena to watch Biles.
It seemed fitting that Biles began her day on beam – the last apparatus on which she competed at Tokyo 2020, taking an emotional bronze after skipping her other individual finals to focus on her mental health.
Her warm-up drew excitement from fans as if it was the real thing, while the photographers’ cameras went into overdrive.
But she was not fazed – or at least, not that we saw.
She delivered her acrobatic skills on the 10cm-wide apparatus with confidence, nailed a delightful triple spin and a complex twisting dismount to score 14.733.
She opened her floor routine with her eponymous Biles II – a triple-twisting double somersault – and while she stepped out of the floor area, it did not matter as the performance was packed with so many high-value skills it scored 14.600.
She paused afterwards to sit on a step, raising concerns her left ankle might be bothering her, and she crawled along the runway after a warm-up vault. But she was soon powering down it to perform the Biles II, which she introduced last year. It was not as good as the one she had stuck earlier in the week in training but still earned her a huge 15.800.
Coach Cecile Landi told reporters Biles had “just a little pain in her calf”.
There was a ripple of excitement as the American approached the uneven bars – was she about to become the only active gymnast to have a skill named after her on every apparatus, a sort of gymnastics skills grand slam?
But she played it safer with a routine that scored 14.433, which was not quite enough to book a spot in that apparatus final.
She will have other opportunities in the team and all-around finals to try that new skill though.
Just another reason why she will have left many people feeling excited for what might come next from her at these Games as seeks to add to her seven Olympic medals.
