Simone Biles is dealing with a calf injury at the Olympics in Paris. However, it does not sound like a major cause for concern and her performance on Sunday would indicate that she will be just fine.
The 27-year-old gymnastics legend finished with the highest score in the qualifying round of the All-Around competition on a bum leg.
Biles walked with a noticeable limp in between events and spent as much time as possible off of her feet. This was after she crawled and hopped her way off of the floor during warmups. Panic immediately struck the star-studded crowd at Bercy Arena when Team USA doctor Marcia Faustin came over to help, which was very similar to the scene in Tokyo three years ago.
I’m gonna cry. Simone noooo pic.twitter.com/UR7zxrlK7Q
— RAP (@richlallen) July 28, 2024
The bad news is that Biles is dealing with an injury. It was hard to hear exactly what she said but it sounded like she told Faustin that she could “literally feel something in her calf” like a “f—— tear.”
The good news is that it was not a case of déjà vu. Biles was not removed from competition like she was in 2021. Faustin cleared her to return after applying a wrap to her lower left leg.
Biles was able to finish every event of the All-Around circuit despite a noticeable limp and ultimately scored the best marks of the day. She had no issue landing the Yurchenko double pike on vault
Regardless of the true severity, coach Cecile Landi downplayed the injury as “just a little pain in her calf” that started to feel better by bars. There is not any concern about Biles’ ability to compete in the women’s team final on Tuesday or beyond — as of right now. There has not been a discussion about doing one vault instead of two or watering down her skills — as of right now.
It seems as though Simone Biles is going to be just fine but her initial discussion with Faustin is worrisome and this is certainly something to monitor.