Simone Biles Battles Calf Pain During Qualifiers

On the second day of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Simone Biles advanced through the qualifications round of gymnastics, while she powered through the pain of a leg injury. 

She earned the highest score of 14.733 with her balance beam routine, and started warming up for the floor routine. At one point, she landed hard, resulting in her having to get her left ankle taped. 

Her coach, Cecile Landi revealed she "felt a little pain in her calf," however the apparent injury was also bothering her in training earlier this month.

It had reportedly improved until now. Cecile revealed Simone intends to continue competing in this year's Olympics as planned. 

In the other qualifying competitions, Simone proceeded to earn high scores, 15.300 on the vault, 14.433 on the uneven bars and 14.600 with her floor routine.

This assisted Team USA to gain a leading score of 172.296.

Other members of the US women's gymnastics team include Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera. 

This year is Simone's third time competing in the Olympics. It follows her performance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which saw her withdraw from several events, due to reported mental health concerns, as well as a case of the "twisties." This is better known as a temporary loss of spatial awareness. 

“It’s a trauma response of everything that has happened, just being like, a survivor and all of the other things.”

Simone was one of the gymnasts who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of ex-doctor Larry Nassar, who is now incarcerated. 

She revealed she didn't want to be afraid of gymnastics anymore.

"I couldn’t have it take that one last thing from me." She said she wanted an "ending on my own terms.”