2 years after Tokyo, Simone Biles coming back from ‘the twisties' in suburban competition - Chicago News Weekly

Friday, August 4, 2023

2 years after Tokyo, Simone Biles coming back from ‘the twisties' in suburban competition

For the first time since experiencing the “twisties” at the Tokyo Olympics, Simone Biles is set to make her return to gymnastics competition and she’ll do it all in a Chicago suburb.

It marks a comeback not every gymnast can make.

For years in gymnastics, the phrase “the twisties” was usually uttered in hushed tones, as if saying the slang term for an athlete’s sudden loss of air awareness during a routine would only deepen the problem.

“It’s almost like a mythical kind of thing,” longtime Oklahoma men’s gymnastics coach Mark Williams said. “When someone says ‘the twisties,’ everyone shudders because it’s bad.”

Then Simone Biles said it in front of the whole world two summers ago in Tokyo, after a sudden onset of the mental block early in the pandemic-delayed 2020 Olympics forced the sport’s biggest star to pull out of several competitions — including the team and all-around finals — to protect herself.

Biles returned to win bronze on balance beam while doing a slightly altered routine that removed any twisting elements. It was her seventh Olympic medal, and she called the triumph sweet while also admitting the twisties hadn’t really disappeared. She and coach Cecile Landi had just found a way to work around them.

That won’t be an option on Saturday when Biles competes for the first time since Tokyo in the U.S. Classic in the Chicago suburbs.

Here’s what fans should know:

Where is the Classic?

The annual national championship event is slated to be held at the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates.

When is the Classic?

The event takes place from Aug. 4-6.

What makes the competition so important?

“As the final opportunity to qualify for the U.S. Gymnastics Championships – the sport’s national championship event – the annual Core Hydration Classic (formerly U.S. Classic) is an important stop on the domestic calendar, attracting the country’s top artistic gymnasts,” the website states. “The event was held as a showcase for junior and senior women from 1983 to 2021 before a men’s division was added earlier this year.”

The U.S. Classic is one of the marquee events on USA Gymnastics’ annual calendar and typically serves as a warm-up of sorts for the national championships, this year scheduled for late August in San Jose.

Biles used the Classic as her comeback meet in 2018 following a two-year hiatus after her record medals haul in Rio de Janeiro. It took her all of two hours to show she remained the gold standard in her sport, setting the stage for another spectacular run that included two more world all-around championships in 2018 and 2019 and three more national titles.

“It is exciting to think about the level of talent and historical legacy of the field that may compete at U.S. Classic,” USA Gymnastics Chief Programs Officer Stefanie Korepin said in a statement. “Every athlete is at a different place in their season and career, and we will support each of them, wherever they are in their journey.”

When will Simone Biles compete?

As of Thursday, the 26-year-old Biles was scheduled to do all four events, including uneven bars, which she acknowledged on her Instagram stories feed this week has been the most difficult discipline to return to “both mentally and physically” because the routines are essentially 45 seconds of uninterrupted flipping, floating and twisting from bar to bar.

Biles could decide at any time what she’s comfortable doing and not doing at this point, though the most decorated female gymnast of all time added: “I’m fine. I’m twisting again. No worries. All is good.”

Biles, 27, has still not revealed any plans for the 2024 Olympics, which are set to be held in Paris next summer. She said last summer that she was undecided on a comeback, but that she would be in Paris in some capacity, as an athlete or otherwise.

What happened with Simone Biles?

Biles has taken most of the last two years off following her eventful stay in Japan in the summer of 2021, where her decision to remove herself from multiple events to focus on her mental health shifted the focus from the games themselves to the overall wellness of the athletes.

She served as a cheerleader as her American teammates won the team silver then sat out the all-around, vault and floor exercise finals she had qualified for while dealing with what is known as “the twisties” — a gymnastics term for when an athlete loses their spatial awareness when airborne.

Biles returned for the balance beam final, where she won a bronze medal that tied Shannon Miller’s record for most Olympic medals by an American female gymnast. She hinted at the Paris 2024 Olympics but only after taking a lengthy break.

The last two years have been a whirlwind of sorts. She headlined her post-Olympic tour in the fall of 2021 and married NFL player Jonathan Owens — now a defensive back for the Green Bay Packers — this spring.

Biles has also become one of the most vocal advocates for athletes finding space to protect their mental health after her stand in Japan put the issue front and center. While the conversation around the subject is constantly evolving, Biles’ return to the sport she dominated for nearly a decade suggests an athlete who wants to go out on her own terms.

Who else is competing?

Sunisa Lee, who won gold in the all-around final in Tokyo, will also be at the U.S. Classic after spending two years competing at Auburn, where she helped spearhead a massive uptick in interest in collegiate gymnastics.

Lee missed the second half of her sophomore year with the Tigers while grappling with health issues but is eyeing a return to the Olympics not necessarily to defend her all-around title but to take another shot at gold on uneven bars, her signature event.

Lee placed third on bars in Tokyo, due in no small part to the attention she received in the immediate aftermath of becoming the fifth straight American woman to win the Olympic title.

Several other top Americans like Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles and Leanne Wong are also in the competition.

Carey, the 2020 Olympic champion on floor exercise and the 2022 world champion on vault, has spent the last two years at Oregon State. Chiles, who won a team silver in Tokyo and added three medals — including silvers on floor and vault — at the world championships last fall, has thrived at UCLA. Wong, the 2021 world championship silver medalist, has helped Florida reach the national finals each of the last two years.

They will all arrive in Chicago sharpened by having competed regularly since Tokyo.

See the full lineup below:

Senior Women
Simone Biles
Skye Blakely
Charlotte Booth
Jade Carey
Dulcy Caylor
Jordan Chiles
Chloe Cho
Melanie de Jesus dos Santos
Kayla DiCello
Leigh Anne Elliott
Madray Johnson
Katelyn Jong
Levi Jung-Ruivivar
Avery King
Sunisa Lee
Myli Lew
Kaliya Lincoln
Nola Matthews
Zoe Miller
Avery Moll
Ella Murphy
Brooke Pierson
Michelle Pineda
Joscelyn Roberson
Paloma Spiridonova
Ashlee Sullivan
Tiana Sumanasekera
Brynn Torry
Leanne Wong
Kelise Woolford
Lexi Zeiss
Alicia Zhou
 
Junior Women
Isabella Anzola
Sage Bradford
Sophia Buechler
Charleigh Bullock
Payton Chandler
Ally Damelio
Tatum Drusch
Reese Esponda
Catherine Guy
Jayla Hang
Cambry Haynes
Jazmyn Jimenez
Claire Pease
Gabriella Pierson
Hezly Rivera
Simone Rose
Izzy Stassi
Tyler Turner
Carly Weinberg
Trinity Wood
 
Senior Men
Saran Alexander
Javier Alfonso
Ashton Anaya
Drake Andrews
Michael Artlip
Arthur Ashton
Danny Beaupre
Fuzzy Benas
Jeremy Bischoff
Cameron Bock
Ethan Boder
Crew Bold
Brandon Briones
Hunter Brunett
Syam Buradagunta
Matt Burgoyne
Taylor Burkhart
J.R. Chou
Kelton Christiansen
Asher Cohen
Matt Cormier
Tate Costa
Clayton Cunningham
Aidan Cuy
Brando Dang
Alex Diab
Isaiah Drake
Carson Eshleman
Luke Esparo
Will Fleck
Mike Fletcher
Colin Flores
Tyler Flores
Nicky Franz
Jack Freeman
Brigham Frentheway
Kristian Grahovski
David Grossman
Ian Gunther
Tas Hajdu
Dallas Hale
Jacob Harmon
Jackson Harrison
Will Hauke
Kazuki Hayashi
Christopher Hiser
Asher Hong
Patrick Hoopes
Evan Hymanson
Alex Istock
Johnny Jacobson
Michael Jaroh
Ayden Johnston
Paul Juda
Leo Koike
Nikolai Kolesnikov
Jordan Kovach
Charlie Larson
Andrew Layman
Sam Lee
Toby Liang
Troy Lipis
Riley Loos
Youssef Mahgoub
Evan Manivong
Zachary Marckx
Christian Marsh
Connor McCool
Evan McGrath
Ronan McQuillan
Izaiha Mlay
Yul Moldauer
Stephen Nedoroscik
Kameron Nelson
Brandon Nguyen
Troy Nuesca
Zachary Nunez
Maxwell Odden
Maddox Pabellon
Jesse-Lee Pakele
Caden Peacock
William Pearce
Adriel Perales-Valencia
Vahe Petrosyan
Curran Phillips
Samuel Phillips
Micah Puckett
Dominic Ramalho
Kellen Ryan
Garrett Schooley
Amari Sewell
Mac Seyler
Tyler Shimizu
Daniel Simmons
Landon Simpson
Caden Spencer
Brendan Strom
Blake Sun
Ryan Swatscheno
Parker Thackston
Ethan Thomas
Tyler Tran
Matthew Underhill
Colin Van Wicklen
Ryan Vanichtheeranont
Kyle Walchuk
Cailen Walker
Colt Walker
Nate Warren
Evan Wenstad
Donnell Whittenburg
Shane Wiskus
Tucker Yasunaga
Nick Yeatts
Ignacio Yockers
Khoi Young
Will Young
Gavin Zborowski
 
Junior Men
Emilio Bracken Serra
Tyler Burgess
Nick Deng
Joseph Hale
Jesse Hanny
Conor Heary
Kyler Hinson
Xander Hong
Will Horenziak
Gage Kalley
Maddox Kinderdine
David Moroney
Wade Nelson
Tristen Nye
Eli Osuna
Divier Ramos
Wyatt Reynolds
Dean-o Roberts
Misha Romo
Lukas Ross
Michael Scheiner
Oleksandr Shybitov
Grey Westmore


from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/g2jcTKd

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