Featured Columnist IVAugust 3, 2024
Naomi Baker/Getty Images
Simone Biles left the door cracked open ever so slightly when it came to her potential participation in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“Never say never,” she said. “Next Olympics are at home. So you just never know. I am getting really old.”
Biles remains the best gymnast in the world. She has added three gold medals to her Olympic haul so far, helping Team USA win the team competition before taking down the field in the all-around and vault events.
NBC Olympics & Paralympics @NBCOlympics
OH WOW. 🤩
Simone Biles just NAILED this vault in the final! #ParisOlympics
📺 NBC, E! and Peacock pic.twitter.com/fgFeDjZuQg
This comes after Biles won gold in the team, all-around, balance beam and floor exercise events in the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
As great as she still is, though, we can probably rule her out for the 2028 Summer Games already if she isn’t going to do it herself.
Gymnastics are unforgiving physically and not a sport that lends itself to having a long run at the highest level.
At 27, Biles became the second-oldest women’s all-around winner in Olympic history and the oldest since the Soviet Union’s Maria Gorokhovskaya earned gold in the 1952 Summer Games when she was 30.
By her own admission, the Texas native is “getting old” relative to her peers now and she’ll be into her 30s at the next Olympics.
The allure of competing on home soil in four years will be tempting. The 1996 Summer Games were the last time the United States served as the host country, and it’s anybody’s guess when the quadrennial showcase will head to the U.S. again.
Putting in the work required to compete in the 2028 Olympics may be much less attractive for Biles, though.
Not to mention, walking away after the Paris Games allows her to put a storybook ending on her Olympic career.
