It did not look like Simone Biles had been gone.
In warm-ups before the U.S. Classic in Illinois on Saturday evening, her tumbling passes were explosive, one of them even upgraded from the last time she competed two years ago. And she brought back the Yurchenko double pike — a vault not contemplated, much less competed, before Biles introduced it in 2021.
She nearly stuck it cold, and the noise from the sold-out arena was deafening.
As the clock ticked down to the start of the actual competition at 7 p.m. Central time, it seemed like it could have been any competition in any of the years, beginning in 2013, that Biles has dominated the sport.