TOKYO — The last person to beat Simone Biles in the all-around competition at a gymnastics meet remembers almost nothing about it.
“Oh, gosh,” Kyla Ross said with a laugh. “It’s been so long.”
Exactly eight years ago, eight years before Biles pulled out of the team final at the Tokyo Olympics to prioritize her mental health, Ross stepped onto a podium in suburban Chicago, a bouquet of flowers nestled in her left arm, a gold medal draped around her neck. And Biles, who three weeks later would win her first of seven national championships, was absent.