Simone cruises to 9th US title

FORT WORTH, Texas — Simone Biles punched her ticket to the US Olympic Trials by securing her ninth all-around championship at the US Gymnastics Championships in Fort Worth, Texas.

Biles recorded a two-day overall score of 119.750, beating runner-up Skye Blakely by nearly six points. Blakely posted a 113.850. Kayla DiCello came in third with a 110.800.

With the victory, the 27-year-old Biles now has nine all-around championships, a national record.

“It was just getting out there and getting comfortable and confident in my gymnastics and hopefully going to Olympic trials and making that next step towards Paris,” Biles said according to Reuters.

“I couldn’t be more proud of how I’m doing this time of the year, just getting that confidence.”

Not only did Biles finish with the highest total score, but she also posted the best two-day scores for all four events.

Sunisa Lee (110.650) and Jordan Chiles (110.400) rounded out the top five.

The US Olympic Trials will be held from June 27-30 in Minneapolis. Biles picked up a silver medal and a bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Games — which were held in 2021 due to COVID-19 — after collecting four golds during the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The defining moment of Biles’ victory wasn’t a twist, a turn or a jump, but a walk.

It came early on, when Biles watched 2020 Olympic champion and good friend Sunisa Lee spin awkwardly in the air during her vault and landed on her back, a mixture of surprise and fear spreading across her face.

“I was kind of thinking that this was over,” Lee said.

Then Biles appeared at her side, unprompted. She knew exactly where Lee was in that moment better than anyone.

Three years ago at the Tokyo Games, a similar wayward vault by Biles started a chain of events that led to her withdrawing from multiple competitions and dragging the discussion on the importance of mental health front and center.

Watching Lee, who has spent most of the last two years battling kidney issues that have made her weight yo-yo and complicated her training, try to gather herself, Biles left her World Champions Centre teammates and gave Lee the kind of support Biles relied on so heavily back in Japan.

“I know how traumatizing it is, especially on a big stage like this,” Biles said. “And I didn´t want her to get in her head, so we just went and talked about it.”

The two retreated off the floor to talk, with Biles reminding Lee she “could do hard things.”