HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — About an hour before her return to competitive gymnastics, Simone Biles launched herself into the air, completed the most difficult vault in her sport and stuck the landing.
And that was, quite literally, just the warmup.
Yes, Biles is officially back. Two years after bowing out of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the 26-year-old made her competitive return at the U.S. Classic in a suburb of Chicago on Saturday night, in front of a packed house and NBC television cameras. She made it official the minute she grasped the uneven bars in her first event.