Simone Biles Is Done Being Judged

Follow live updates of the women’s gymnastics qualifying at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

With a toe-tapping Beyoncé song blasting in the arena, Simone Biles leaped up to the balance beam and wobbled, leaning over and circling her arms like windmills as if she were trying not to fall off a cliff.

A few more times in her routine, she faltered on the four-inch-wide beam. And when she finished her routine at last month’s U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials, it was clear what she thought about her effort.

Instead of just frowning or shaking her head in frustration, which would have been the norm, because the judges were watching, Biles — who ended up winning the meet — let out an expletive.

Fans in the arena loudly gasped.

From a top gymnast on the national stage, showing that kind of emotion is rare, and that particular word may have been unprecedented. But Biles no longer worries about being judged, on or off the competition floor.

At 27, she is the best gymnast in history, by natural talent and also medal count, having transformed the sport with dangerously difficult routines that remain unmatched. For years, she sacrificed both mind and body for gymnastics, competing under psychological torment as a sexual assault survivor and with physical pain that made her feel as if she would need a wheelchair by the time she turned 30.