Simone Biles completed a near perfect return to Olympics competition on Sunday despite an injury scare during the qualification competition.
The 27-year-old, who returned to an ovation, seemed to injure herself during the warm-ups for the floor exercise, was examined by medical staff and needed taping strapped around her lower left leg and ankle.
Briefly there seemed concern whether she could perform her routine.
She then seemed to be stretching her calf muscle by jogging up and down but stepped out to execute a floor exercise of incredible complexity, scoring an impressive 14.6.
Biles still seemed subdued after leaving the floor. She sat on the step leading down from the performing area, rather then joining her teammates.
American Simone Biles made her first appearance at this summer’s Paris Olympics on Sunday
Biles was checked on by a doctor after appearing to suffer a calf injury at the Bercy Arena
The four-time Olympic champion was also seen with tape strapped around her left ankle
The tension as she prepared for the floor was compounded a disastrous conclusion to teammate Jade Carey’s routine on the arena floor.
Carey lost her balance and fell. Biles took a step off the floor in her first tumbling pass – one of the signature moves which takes her name and took a step forward after her second.Â
But despite the 0.1 point deduction for stepping off, it was hugely impressive return to the Olympic floor.
Biles was then attended to again by doctors before performing the vault – the exercise which prompted her to withdraw from competition in Tokyo – and she sat on the floor, seeming to stretch her calf again, before competing.
Biles has injured her calf before and could be heard on the TV broadcast saying: ‘As soon as I took off, I felt it,’ she said. ‘It’s right there on my calf. Right where I had that f***ing tear.’
USA gymnastics coach Cecile Landi has revealed that Biles’ injury scare was a flare-up of a strain she sustained before the Olympics but declined to discuss how serious the injury is.
Biles, who was walking gingerly as she left the stadium on Sunday lunchtime, had felt better as Sunday’s competition went on and had made no indication that she cannot continue to compete in Paris, Landi stated.
Biles executed a floor exercise of incredible complexity and was rewarded with a score of 14.6
Twenty-seven-year-old gymnastics icon Biles also competed on the uneven bars on Sunday
She later performed the vault – which was the exercise that promoted her to pull out of TokyoÂ
Landi said: ‘She felt a little something in her calf. That’s all. There was just a little pain in her calf. She felt it a little on the floor and we taped it.’ Asked if there had been any discussion about Biles not continuing, Landi said: ‘Never in her mind.’
The coach said that the injury felt like the continuation of a strain she had felt during the build-up to the Olympics. ‘A couple of weeks ago she felt it and after it stopped and she felt a little again today,’ Landi said. ‘She felt better at the end of the competition today. On [the] bars [routine] she said she felt better.’
There were no worries ‘at the moment’ about Biles being able to continue competing and there had been no consideration of doing an easier routine on the vault, where she had to perform twice to reach the individual final?
Asked it was just a minor injury, Landi replied: ‘I don’t know. I’m not a doctor.’ She then said she would answer no more questions on Biles’ calf.
