Simone Biles revealed her candid thoughts on her future in the Games after winning a gold medal in the women’s individual vault final on Saturday. Biles clinched her third gold in the Paris Olympics, bringing her total up to seven career gold medals and 10 career Olympic medals. The 27-year-old still has more silverware to win this summer, as she is set to compete in the women’s individual balance beam and floor finals on Monday.
As for the farther-off future, Biles didn’t completely close the door on competing in the 2028 Olympics, which will be hosted by Los Angeles. “Never say never,” Biles told USA Today. “The next Olympics is at home, so you just never know. But I am getting really old.”
In Saturday’s vault final, Biles finished with an average score of 15.3, beating Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade by 0.334 points. Biles currently owns a glittering trove of records, has multiple gymnastics skills named after her, and will go down in Olympic history as perhaps the greatest ever in the sport. But could Father Time be catching up to her? At 27, Biles became the oldest U.S. Olympic gymnast to appear in the Games in 72 years.
After Thursday’s individual all-around final, which featured another neck-to-neck competition between Biles and Andrade, Biles told reporters that she was stressed during the event. “I’m excited and proud to compete with [Andrade], but I don’t like it no more,” Biles said. “I mean, I’m getting uncomfortable, guys. I don’t like that feeling. I was stressing… I don’t want to compete with Rebeca no more. I’m tired. She’s way too close. I’ve never had an athlete that close, so it definitely put me on my toes and it brought up the best athlete in myself.”
Biles will be 31 years old come the 2028 Games. If she decides she wants one last dance, she would become the second-oldest American female gymnast in Olympic history behind Marie Margaret Hoesly, who competed in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics at 35 years old.