ST. LOUIS — On her way to making her second Olympic team, Simone Biles ran into doubts. Sometime during Night 2 of U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials on Sunday, they found a way into her head.
Could she be as spectacular as everyone thought she should be? Could she perform as well as she thought she was capable of?
As the night unfolded, even in front of a crowd that adored her, Biles found it hard to maintain her confidence. She took hops backward on her vault landings and made mistakes on the uneven bars. On the 4-inch wide balance beam, she wobbled, put her hands down on it and then fell off, stomping away after completing her a stunningly difficult dismount, as her eyes filled with tears.