Simone Biles and Suni Lee went toe to toe in what was an excellent outing for Team USA on Day 1 of their Paris Olympics. Battling demons of their own, both Lee and Biles looked quite uncertain about Paris 2024. But not only did they qualify, but they also owned the stage in Paris. Coming in at the second subdivision, Team USA had Great Britain challenging them in the first subdivision. However, once Suni Lee and Simone Biles took center stage, dynamics began to shift rapidly.

Rotation one demanded the US gymnasts go up on the balance beam. Catching all the limelight, Lee and Biles took 14.033 and 14.733, respectively, to give Team USA a solid start. Although Biles looked the more elegant of the two, Suni Lee’s incredible turns, followed by a picture-perfect dismount, were also praiseworthy. The duo then went on to the floor, where Jade Carey had a huge tumble toward the end of her floor routine.

With the danger of Team USA’s all-around tally getting affected, it was Simone Biles who rose to the occasion. She took home 14.600, followed by Suni Lee at 13.100. In the subsequent rotations, both the stars from the US remained steady, with Biles notching up a whopping 15.800 in one of her vaults.

Banking on a solid performance, Simone Biles and Suni Lee led the all-around charts with 59.566 and 56.132 points, respectively. The 27-year-old gained such an incredible score that it could have easily qualified as the winning one in the previous two world championships. And with that, for the first time in the Olympics, two former all-around champions from the same country will compete for gold in Paris.

In the individual events too, Simone Biles and Suni Lee reigned supreme. Biles qualified for all the apparatus barring the bars, where she stands eighth. Suni Lee, on the other hand, will be aiming for individual glory on the bars and the beam. However, despite putting up a champion-like performance, Simone Biles will be having her eyes fixated on her arch-rival, Rebeca Andrade. She will be performing in the fifth subdivision at 3 p.m. ET. Well, while both Simone Biles and Suni Lee are once again at the top of the world, both gymnasts’ worlds fell crashing down after the Tokyo Olympics.

Simone Biles and Suni Lee’s incredible comeback

Simone Biles shocked the world when she could not land her usual two-and-a-half turn at the vault in Tokyo. Adding to the bewilderment of the crowd, Biles then proceeded to withdraw herself from the Tokyo Olympics. Such a sudden decision opened the floodgates, and the champion from the Rio Olympics soon became the villain. While Biles did clarify her complications with twisties, the fans, and media went up in arms to label the gymnastics champion, ‘Quitter of the Year’. Crestfallen by the scathing criticism, Simone Biles went into a shell, which resulted in extreme depression. 

With support from her mother, Nellie Biles, her husband, Jonathan Owens, and her coaches, Laurent and Cecile Landi, Simone Biles slowly began to recover. And if her World Championship triumph was not enough, here she is, perched right at the top of the table, where she belongs. Now, this was Simone Biles’ story, who could not compete in Tokyo. But for Suni Lee, things went bizarrely downhill after she won the all-around gold in 2020! 

With all the glory shining on Suni Lee, her career was expected to take off drastically. Instead, Lee was soon diagnosed with a kidney complication that threatened to bid adieu to her career forever. Several complicated routines were prohibited for Suni Lee, as it took her a long time to cope with the mental and physical trauma. Fortunately for her, Lee’s coaching staff took things very slow and got Suni Lee prepared just in time for the Olympics. Thus, after looking at the first two names in the all-around rankings list for Paris 2024, the word ‘impossible’ seems like an unlikely phrase. At least for champions like Suni Lee and Simone Biles.