While Biles allowed she was officially retiring her eponymous Yurchenko double pike vault because “I kind of nailed that one” at the Paris Olympics, she didn’t rule out a return to the Games
Is gymnastics superstar Simone Biles retiring? Biles still has a few events left at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
But with being one of the oldest medalists in Olympics gymnastics history and her “redemption tour” at the Summer Games — some had assumed retirement would be up next.
While that still could be the case, Biles on Saturday left open the possibility she could compete at the next Summer Games — in four years.
Minutes after the American gymnastics star won the seventh Olympic gold of her career, she played coy when asked if the event marked the final time she would ever explode off the springboard in competition.
While Biles allowed she was officially retiring her eponymous Yurchenko double pike vault because “I kind of nailed that one” at the Paris Olympics, she didn’t rule out a return to the Games when they move to Los Angeles in 2028.
“Never say never,” Biles said. “Next Olympics are at home. So you just never know. I am getting really old.”
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Biles averaged 15.300 on her two vaults to claim a second gold in the event eight years after she triumphed in Rio de Janeiro.
Three years ago in the run-up to Tokyo she tinkered with the Yurchenko double pike, the hardest vault ever done by a woman, but she didn’t get a chance to throw it in the Olympics. She opted instead for an Amanar, which requires 2 1/2 twists.
Biles has 10 career medals, tied for the third most by a female gymnast in Olympic history. Two more before she heads back to Texas and she would find herself all alone in second behind Larisa Latynina, who piled up 18 while competing for the Soviet Union in the 1950s and ‘60s.
