Simone Biles has said she is delighted to be home in the US after her tumultuous appearance at the Tokyo Olympics.
The 24-year-old flew into Houston on Thursday and was welcomed at the airport by crowds of supporters and relatives, including parents Ronald and Nellie and her sister Rachel.
Biles wrote on Instagram: “Houston, I’m home. Thanks for making sure I didn’t have to wait one more minute to see my family @united.”
Carrying a bouquet of flowers, Biles only briefly interacted with local media, saying she wanted to “have some space”.
The legendary gymnast’s sister Rachel told the station: “Very, very emotional. Good to have her back.”
After leaving the airport Biles headed to her nearby home town of Spring in a convertible, cheered on by numerous fans who lined the road holding placards of support.
LET THE GAMES BEGIN ✨ pic.twitter.com/6jYpzT0min
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) July 23, 2021
Her homecoming followed her dramatic appearance at the games marked by withdrawals, psychological counselling and family tragedy.
She had arrived with the expectation of equalling or even surpassing her historic quadruple gold medal haul from Rio in 2016.
But, after a relatively underwhelming qualification process, she admitted she was experiencing mental health issues and “the twisties” – a phenomenon which temporarily affects an athlete’s spatial awareness.
Daily medical evaluations and two sessions with a sports psychologist within the US team led to Biles being effectively withdrawn from her finals until she was cleared for beam, theoretically the least risky of the apparatus and one which can be performed with the minimum impact on spatial elements.
She took a bronze medal in the beam, to go with her silver from the team competition.
Biles also revealed her paternal aunt had died suddenly during the first week of the games.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here