How Simone Biles, US Olympic gymnastics team shattered age stereotype

PARIS — Simone Biles thought she owed Aly Raisman an apology.

After winning the U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials in June, the 27-year-old Biles thought back to her first Olympics and her joking references to Raisman, who was just 22 at the time, as ‘grandma.’

‘I definitely have to apologize to Aly,’ Biles said with a laugh. ‘I’m way older now than me calling her grandma when we were younger.’

Behind Biles’ good-natured ribbing of her one-time teammate was an inadvertent nod to what had long been the reality in women’s gymnastics. For decades, teenagers reigned on the world stage while athletes in their early or mid 20s were already considered to be past their athletic peaks.

It’s a stereotype that has since started to crumble − in large part because of Biles, who is as dominant as she’s ever been entering the 2024 Paris Olympics, which will be her third trip to the Games.

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Biles is seeking to become the oldest all-around Olympic champion in women’s gymnastics in 72 years, and she is one of four athletes on the U.S. team who fit what used to be a rare mold, as repeat Olympians in their 20s. The other three − Jade Carey (24), Jordan Chiles (23) and Suni Lee (21) − all competed in college between their two Olympic appearances, which also used to be uncommon. (Hezly Rivera, 16, rounds out the team.)

With an average age north of 22 years old, it will be the oldest U.S. women’s gymnastics team to compete at the Olympics since 1952, according to USA Gymnastics.

‘The longevity of this sport has been totally changed. Simone has changed that,’ Chiles said in an interview after the Olympic trials.

‘I felt like it was just something that was put into gymnasts’ mind − that, ‘Maybe I can’t do it because they told me my typical time to be done is through this age.’ But now I feel like my eyes are open. People can see, ‘Oh, well, that’s not true.”

Biles, a seven-time Olympic medalist, has said she likes to use the phrase ‘aging like fine wine.’ After taking a hiatus from the sport following her withdrawal from almost all of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics due to a case of ‘the twisties,’ which caused her to feel disoriented in the air, she returned to competition a little more than a year ago at 26.

Biles’ comeback is part of a broader shift that has taken place throughout women’s gymnastics over the past decade − a change similar to that seen in women’s figure skating, where it has also become more common for athletes to continue skating past their teenage years.

‘She’s old in the gymnastics world − quote, unquote − but in real life, she’s still young,’ said Chiles, one of Biles’ teammates at World Champions Centre. ‘So I think that gives that (younger) generation (the message of), ‘OK if she can do it, I can do it.”

The paradigm shift is not just happening in the United States. That U.S. women’s gymnastics team is just fifth-oldest among the 12 teams at these Games.

While some countries, such as China and Romania, have teenage-heavy rosters, medal contender Brazil is fielding a team with an average age (25.2) that is three years older than that of the United States. And the Netherlands has three gymnasts on its five-woman team who are north of 30.

‘I think the preconceived notion of, ‘You’re only good at gymnastics until you’re 16, 17, 18′ − that has changed drastically,’ said Alicia Sacramone Quinn, the women’s strategic lead for USA Gymnastics.

Sacramone Quinn said she encountered that preconceived notion herself following the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where she was on the team that won silver. When she decided to return to competition the following year, a few months shy of her 22nd birthday, she recalled hearing surprise from some corners of the gymnastics community. An injury ultimately derailed her chances of making the 2012 Olympic team.

‘The older you get, the easier it becomes,’ Sacramone Quinn explained. ‘You’re starting to go on autopilot. And you know your body better. … The older you are, the more in tune with that.’

In the women’s team competition, which starts with qualifying Sunday, the U.S. will try to prove as much: Showing up-and-coming gymnasts who age can actually be a strength rather than a flaw to overcome.

‘I feel like as we’ve all gotten older, we’ve all gotten better,’ said Lee, the reigning Olympic all-around champion. ‘It’s not (just) for the little girls.’