At 27 years old, Simone Biles is Team USA's oldest female gymnast to compete at the Games in 72 years.
When Simone Biles officially cemented her place on Team USA for her third Olympic Games, she made history in another way. At 27 years old, Biles is America's oldest female gymnast to compete at the Games in 72 years, a fact that she recently acknowledged during a press conference after the U.S. Olympic trials on Sunday.
Reflecting on her journey back to the Olympics after exiting the Tokyo Games early due to the "twisties," Biles quipped that she would have to apologize to former teammate Aly Raisman, who was 22 when they competed together at the 2016 Rio Games.
"I definitely have to apologize to Aly for calling her grandma because, whew," she said during the conference, according to Gymnastics Now. Biles had been 19 years old at the time. "I feel like I'm way older now than me calling her grandma when we were younger."
"And, you know, it's what, 11 [p.m.]? So, it's definitely past my bedtime," she quipped. "So, I know Aly would be cracking up right now. I'm a lot older and more mature. What was the rest of the question? See, I'm forgetting."
Joining Biles are three other returning Olympians -- Suni Lee, Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles -- and 16-year-old newcomer and Junior World silver medalist Hezly Rivera.
The decorated Olympian set the tone at the outset of the women's trials. Despite coming in second behind Leanne Wong in the first two rotations, she led at the end of the third (42.925) and did not look back from there. Biles led after the first day with a score of 58.90, while Chiles and Lee recorded scores of 56.40 and 56.025 to round out the top three.
The second day of the women's team trials started and ended in a similar fashion -- dominance by Biles. Despite struggling on the high bar, Biles impressed on floor exercise, leaping 12 feet in the air off of her signature triple twisting double tuck and landing with a score of 14.725. After Biles' top score of 117.25, the rest of the finishers were clustered with scores of 111.675 for Lee, 111.425 for Chiles, 111.350 for Carey and 111.150 for Rivera.
During day 2 of the competition, Biles' stellar floor routine began with Taylor Swift's hit, "Ready For It." Bringing the energy, Biles executed a number of flips during her quest to claim a spot on the 2024 Olympic gymnastics team.
Swift, 34, caught wind of the video -- after it was shared on the official U.S. Olympics and Paralympics X (formally Twitter) account.
"Watched this so many times and still unready. She’s ready for it tho👏👏👏🥇🇺🇸❤️," Swift replied to the video on Saturday while on her Eras Tour run in Dublin.
Team USA's Artistic Gymnastics team begins competing in Paris on Saturday, July 27. The team finals are scheduled for July 29 and 30, while all-around finals will take place July 31 and Aug. 1.
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