Simone Biles is dropping clues that her Olympic journey might be reaching its finish line.
The gymnastics powerhouse opened up to Sports Illustrated in an interview that came out Thursday.
“Because I’ve accomplished so much, there’s almost nothing left to do, rather than to just be snobby and to try again, and for what?” Biles shared. “I’m at a point in my career where I’m humble enough to know when to be done.”
The 27-year-old superstar crushed it at the 2024 Paris Olympics, grabbing three golds in team, all-around, and vault finals, plus a silver in floor. Her Olympic collection now stands at eleven medals – seven gold, two silver, and two bronze.
“If you go back [to the Olympics], you’ll be greedy. Those are the consequences,” she told the magazine. “But that’s also your decision to decide. What sacrifices would be made if I go back now? When you’re younger, it’s like, prom, college. Now it’s like, starting a family, being away from my husband. What’s really worth it?”
During her Sports Illustrated interview – where she was crowned their 2024 Sportsperson of the Year – Biles admitted she hasn’t fully grasped how much she’s changed the game.
“I don’t think the reality has set in of what I’ve exactly done in the sport,” she shared. “I can see it, and I hear it from people, and I see a glimpse of it, but the full magnitude I don’t think I’ve realized just yet. I don’t think I’ll realize ’til maybe I retire and look back in a couple years like, ‘Damn, she was good.’ Because I can see that, but I do it every day. So for me, it’s normal.”
After stepping back from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 to focus on her mental wellbeing, Biles didn’t slow down. At 25, she made history as the youngest recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and tied the knot with NFL player Jonathan Owens.
When she jumped back into gymnastics two years later at the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, she proved she was still on top, becoming the most decorated gymnast ever in world and Olympic history.
