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Top
all-around
finisher
Simone
Biles
waves as
second
place
Morgan
Hurd and
third
place
Riley
McCusker
look on
at the
U.S.
Gymnastics
Championships,
Sunday,
Aug. 19,
2018, in
Boston.
(Photo:
Elise
Amendola,
AP) |
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Biles
dresses
for the
survivors
while
winning
5th US
title
By
WILL
GRAVES
AP
Sports
BOSTON -
The
color
choice
wasn’t a
coincidence.
It was a
statement.
One
Simone
Biles
felt
compelled
to make
even as
the
organization
she
competes
for
struggles
to find
a
compassionate
and
compelling
message
to
sexual
abuse
survivors.
The
Olympic
champion
designed
the
leotard
she wore
while
winning
her
fifth US
women’s
gymnastics
title
Sunday,
all the
way down
to the
light
shade of
teal.
It’s the
designated
color
for
survivors
of
sexual
abuse, a
group
that
includes
Biles,
who
revealed
in
January
she was
among
the
victims
of
former
USA
Gymnastics
team
doctor
Larry
Nassar.
“(The
color)
is for
the
survivors,”
Biles
said
after
becoming
the
first
woman in
24 years
to post
the top
score on
every
event on
her way
to a
national
championship.
“I stand
with all
of them
and I
think
it’s
kind of
special
to unite
(people).”
The
21-year-old
came up
with the
idea
eight
months
ago,
long
before
she knew
how her
comeback
following
a
post-Olympic
break
would
go. In
the end,
it
simultaneously
served
as a
beacon
to her
otherworldly
gymnastics
while
also
highlighting
the need
to keep
the
Nassar
victims
at the
forefront.
It’s
a
balance
USA
Gymnastics
can’t
seem to
locate.
Biles’
electric
performance
came
hours
after
USA
Gymnastics
president
Kerry
Perry
spent 22
minutes
talking
around
the
fallout
of the
Nassar
scandal
without
offering
much in
the way
of
substance
in her
first
extended
public
comments
since
taking
over
last
December.
Simone
Biles
competes
on the
balance
beam at
the U.S.
Gymnastics
Championships,
Sunday,
Aug. 19,
2018, in
Boston.
(Photo:
Elise
Amendola,
AP)
Perry
danced
around
the
question
when
asked if
the
organization
planned
to do
anything
specific
to honor
the
survivors.
Ultimately,
USA
Gymnastics
did not,
though
Perry
said she
envisions
a day
when the
organization
and the
victims
stand
“side by
side.”
It’s
already
happening,
and it
has
little
to do
with USA
Gymnastics
and
everything
to do
with
Biles.
She
has
opted
against
providing
specifics
about
her
experiences
with
Nassar.
In a
way, her
boundary-pushing
gymnastics
and
thoughtful
fashion
choice
will
send a
stronger
message
than any
words
ever
could.
Two
years
after
winning
four
gold
medals
in at
the 2016
Summer
Games,
Biles
has
somehow
reached
another
level.
She
posted a
two-day
total of
119.850,
more
than six
points
ahead of
reigning
world
champion
Morgan
Hurd and
a full
seven
points
clear of
Riley
McCusker.
Biles’
margin
of
victory
was
greater
than the
gap
between
Hurd and
11th-place
finisher
Jordan
Chiles.
“She
pushes
us,”
McCusker
said.
“I’m
honestly
just in
awe of
her.”
Biles is
the
second
woman to
win
nationals
five
times,
joining
Clara
Schroth
Lomady,
who won
six
between
1945 and
1952.
Biles
also
became
the
first
woman
since
three-time
Olympian
Dominique
Dawes in
1994 to
wind up
first on
floor
exercise,
balance
beam,
vault
and
uneven
bars.
Simone
Biles
competes
on the
uneven
bars
at the
U.S.
Gymnastics
Championships,
Sunday,
Aug. 19,
2018, in
Boston.
(Photo:
Elise
Amendola,
AP)
“It
was
shocking
then (in
’94) and
it’s
shocking
now,
too,”
said
high
performance
coordinator
Tom
Forster.
Forster
and the
rest of
the
world
might
want to
get used
to it.
Again.
A
year
ago,
Biles
was
wrapping
up a
post-Olympic
whirlwind.
She
basked
in the
aftermath
of her
glorious
run at
the 2016
Olympics
in which
she
brought
home a
record-tying
five
medals
and
entered
the
“first-name”
pantheon
in her
sport, a
club
that
includes
fellow
Olympic
champions
Nadia
Comaneci
and Mary
Lou
Retton.
Biles,
however,
is
making a
compelling
case for
a class
all her
own.
She
didn’t
get
serious
about a
return
until
last
fall,
when she
went
back
into
training
with new
coaches
in
Laurent
and
Cecile
Landi
intent
on not
just
returning
to the
form
that
made her
one of
the
stars in
Rio de
Janeiro
but
seeing
just how
far she
could
push
herself
and her
sport.
Two
meets
into her
comeback,
the
possibilities
are
staggering.
Her
all-around
score of
60.1
during
the
opening
round
Friday
marked
the
highest
in
competition
since
she and
Olympic
teammate
Aly
Raisman
both
topped
the
60-point
barrier
during
the
all-around
finals
in
Brazil.
Biles
worried
a bit
about
her
endurance
after
cramming
two
meets in
a span
of three
weeks.
She
wasn’t
quite as
sharp
Sunday
as she
was
Friday —
scoring
a bit
lower on
bars and
beam —
but it
hardly
mattered.
She was
so far
ahead
coming
into the
finals,
she
needed
do
little
more
than
stay
upright
to
finish
the
night
atop the
podium.
Simone
Biles
competes
on the
vault
at the
U.S.
Gymnastics
Championships,
Sunday,
Aug. 19,
2018, in
Boston.
(Photo:
Elise
Amendola,
AP)
“I
kind of
thought
I’d be a
nervous
wreck
and
maybe
fall
apart,”
Biles
said.
“Going
into
these
events,
I kept
telling
my
family,
‘I don’t
know if
I’m
going to
be able
to calm
myself
down the
way I
did
before
and
handle
the
nerves.’
But so
far, so
good.”
Biles
will get
a chance
to add
to her
14 world
championship
medals
when she
leads
Team USA
to Qatar
in
October.
Hurd,
McCusker
and
vault
specialist
Jordan
Chiles
figure
to be on
the
plane,
too.
Whoever
earns
the
fifth
spot
will
join a
team
heavily
favored
to
continue
its
international
supremacy.
The
Americans
have won
every
major
international
team
competition
since
the 2011
world
championships,
a run
that
figures
to
continue
indefinitely
with
Biles
doing
things
no
gymnast
has ever
done.
“You
can’t be
that
lucky,”
Forster
said.
“So that
is just
hard
work and
training
and
dedication
and
determination.
It’s
pretty
awesome
to
witness.”
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