Three years ago, at the Ariake Gymnastics Center in Tokyo Bay, Simone Biles retired to the locker room, put on a huge white robe, and came out to announce to the whole world that she was retiring from the Olympic Games. She was supposed to be the star, she had to be the star, but she could no longer be the star. With her decision, she sparked a huge debate about mental health in elite sports, competition pressure, public misunderstanding, even the long-term effects of sexual abuse, but she also left a huge void.
If in Munich 1972 the king was Mark Spitz; in Montreal 1976 the queen was Nadia Comaneci; in Los Angeles 1984, Carl Lewis; in Barcelona 1992, the Dream Team; in Atlanta 1996 it was Michael Johnson; and in Beijing 2008, Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt reigned; in Tokyo 2020, Biles had the throne reserved. And without her, no one took her place. "I don't want to be a star, I wasn't born for it," proclaimed the American swimmer Caeleb Dressel, who won five medals, the most, and a few months later fell into a deep depression.
Today, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games start with the position of top star, legend, emblem still vacant. Who will be the biggest protagonist? Who knows, although the best-positioned contender is once again who she was: Biles. It is barely remembered, but after her catharsis of dizziness and tears, the American gymnast signed up for the last day of competition in Tokyo to win a bronze on the balance beam, her weakest apparatus, and leave a message: "I will be back."
Since then, the four-time Olympic champion at the Rio 2016 Games has gone through a healing process that involved not competing for two years, attending therapy to avoid those dreaded twisties, and, among other things, receiving a medal of honor from Joe Biden or marrying NFL player Jonathan Owens. In mid-2023, she returned with such success that she dominated the last World Championships. Starting on Tuesday, the 30th - with the qualification on Sunday - at the Bercy Arena in Paris, she will face competition from other gymnasts like the Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, her friend, training partner, but mainly, it will depend on herself.
If she can bear the weight on her shoulders, she will not only win but also reign. If she cannot, there are few other contenders. In fact, the other shining star also has a woman's name, specifically an American woman's name: Katie Ledecky. The swimmer holds in her arms and legs a record that remains in memory: if she wins in the three distances she will compete in, she will become the athlete with the most gold medals in Olympic history.
Already owning seven, she will add 10, one more than the Ukrainian Larisa Latynina, a gymnastics legend before Biles. Against her, her shyness and her absolute focus on long-distance events, the less spectacular swimming races. At 27 years old and after 12 years in the elite - she already won a gold in London 2012 - Ledecky has dropped the 200 meters and short relays to focus all her chances on the 400 meters she will compete in tomorrow, the 800 meters, and the 1,500 meters. In the pool, there is no one with her track record, but new stars could emerge.
The local audience hopes for success for Leon Marchand, a butterfly specialist, and in the 100-meter freestyle, there will be an electric duel between the Romanian David Popovici and the Chinese Pan Zhanle, both recent world record holders. They will need to fly and exude charisma to transcend the boundaries of their sport, but they could do it.
Just as sprinter Noah Lyles could do on the track at the Stade de France or as Eliud Kipchoge has already done, a legend no matter what he does in the marathon. In reality, it is most likely that once again the star of the Games will not be in athletics or swimming but in tennis, with all eyes on Carlos Alcaraz, or in basketball, with another Dream Team (Lebron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum, Joel Embiid) in action and the phenomenon Victor Wembanyama at home.
Stars are missing, there is always someone missing, like the recently deceased marathon runner Kelvin Kiptum, some sanctioned Russians like the swimmer Evgeny Rylov, or those who declined, like Kylian Mbappé or Tadej Pogacar, but the Olympic Games wait for no one. A throne is vacant, and the one who occupies it will possibly be a woman.