US Olympians and Olympic hopefuls describe their creative pandemic training
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SPRING, Texas - The Tokyo Olympics might not be the last you see of Simone Biles.
The four-time Olympic champion had said previously that she would end her competitive career in Tokyo. But because the Games were postponed a year due to COVID-19 and because her coaches, Cecile and Laurent Landi, are originally from France, Biles isn't ruling out the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
"It'd be neat to end it there and hang it up, but we just never know. We'll have to see," Biles told USA TODAY Sports last week. "I think Tokyo is definitely my main goal right now, and then we have tour after that. So we'll just see."
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Biles organized and is headlining the Gold Over America Tour, a 35-city show that runs from Sept. 21 through Nov. 7. After that, she plans to take time off to relax, give her body a break and enjoy doing all the things she can't when she's training six days a week - and doing skills most humans can barely imagine, let alone do.
© Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY SportsSimone Biles: Gymnastics, United States. One of the biggest names and most accomplished athletes in Olympic sports, Biles won four gold medals and one bronze in Rio and looks primed to match or exceed that haul this summer.
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Biles took time off after Rio, too, not returning to the gym full-time until early 2018.
"I think right now she wants to see that finish line, especially since it was pushed (back) for a year," said Cecile Landi, who competed for France at the 1996 Olympics. "She wants to see it. She needs to see it. She keeps telling me, `Four months, I'm done. I'm going to push myself for four months and then I'm done.'
"But then sometimes she's like, `But then what?'" Cecile Landi added. "You tell me. Whatever you want."
If Biles does return, Laurent Landi said it will not be as an all-arounder. Instead, she would likely be a specialist on floor and vault, her two best events.
Biles has avoided major injuries in her career, a combination of her natural athletic ability and her savvy in training. Those crazy skills she does? They are moves she's "played around" with for months, sometimes years, before she even considered competing them.
But Biles also has been doing high-level gymnastics for almost a decade, Laurent Landi said, and that's a lot of pounding.
"Even though we try to limit the numbers, it's 10 years of very, very high level," he said. "It has a toll on the body and she needs to be careful."
Besides, it's not as if Biles has anything to prove in the all-around.
She has won a record five all-around titles at the world championships, and is the overwhelming favorite to become the first woman in more than 50 years to repeat as Olympic all-around champion. She has won every meet she's entered going back to the U.S. championships in 2013.
"I think," Biles said, "I've kind of put it all out there."
Follow Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Simone Biles toying with returning as an event specialist at 2024 Paris Olympics