Is the Paris Olympics 2024 Simone Biles‘ last hurrah, or will she make a dazzling return when the Games roll into Hollywood for LA 2028? The speculation was always there for the oldest woman on the American gymnastics squad. Now, the GOAT herself has dropped a massive hint straight from the French capital, right after she snagged her 9th Olympic medal—her 6th gold!

In a post on Facebook by Access, Simone teased the future with a heartfelt quote referring to her arch-rival Rebeca Andrade of Brazil. “Thank you Rebeca. It’s good. You know Imma Imma hand it to her now. She can have the rest,” Simone said in the post-match press conference. It looks like Simone is ready to pass the torch—or maybe just the gold medal—to Rebeca Andrade for now. You must be wondering why she chose Rebeca to pass the baton. Well, Simone answered that as well.

“I’m tired, like she’s way too close. I’ve never had an athlete that close so it definitely put me on my toes,” Simone said while mentioning that this very pressure brought out the best from her. But she did not hesitate even once to accept that she was “stressing” and she had her bronze medalist teammate Suni Lee to testify that. “I swear I’ve never seen you that stressed in my life,” Suni said, sitting on Simone’s left. So exactly how close Rebeca was to Simone in the all-around competition?

The two started off with the vault routine. Rebeca pulled off a Gorgeous Cheng, that she almost stuck. That earned her 15.100. Simone obviously had her signature Yurchenko Double Pike (Biles II on vault) as the reply. But here Simone revealed something astonishing in the press conference.

“I was like oh goodness, I was like o thank God we did the double Pike today because I wasn’t planning on it. But I just knew how phenomenal of an athlete she is and on each event we’re very similar in scores. So I was like okay I think I have to bring out the big guns this time,” Simone said. Her strategy worked. And she picked up 15.766 in vault. In rotation two, Andrade proved why she can stress Simone.

On the uneven bars, Rebeca performed a Maloney to stalder full, arched over slightly but pulled back into the piked Tkachev to Pak to van Leeuwen, blind change to piked Jaeger, toe full, rushed it a bit, into the full-in, and landed with a small hop back. Here she picked up 14.666. The event that is considered Simone’s weakest event truly gave everyone a scare, as Simone managed only 13.733. This made her slip to the third position after rotation 2 with 29.499 with Rebeca sitting on top (29.766). And Simone did not deny that she was under pressure.

Speaking of her reaction after the bars, Simone said in the press conference, “I was like talking to my husband like, what place am I in and how far am I behind, and he’s like you’re fine, you’re in third because I’ve just never been so stressed before.” But Simone came back in the balance beam routine.

With a mostly flawless performance, she scored a healthy 14.566. We can not say Rebeca was much far behind as she also picked up a solid 14.133. At the end of the rotation 3 Simone regained her top position with 44.065 with Rebeca still naggingly close with 43.899. However, in the last rotation, Simone literally took away the floor as she pulled off a massive 15.066 against Rebeca’s 14.033. The 23x world champion must have been much elated to wrap up her day with 59.131 while Andrade stood at a distance with 57.932. No reason to be relieved though!

Let us not forget that the vault finals in Paris are not yet done. It will once again bring the two behemoths at loggerheads. And we still remember the fact that in last year’s world championships, Rebeca took away the gold from Simone despite the former getting the YDP named after her. Still, we can safely say that Simone can say that she has got all she could have. Maybe for that, in the past, she has given succinct hints that she is walking her way back.

“Even if I feel smarter, stronger and wiser than for my two past Olympics, I am getting old and I have more to lose,” Simone had said in an interview with Lemonde in February. She was asked, does she plan to come back to LA28 to earn some more? “Oh God! Absolutely not! I am way too old and there are too many gifted girls in the all-around on the American team to send event specialists,” Simone had said, bursting into laughter. Despite that, she can not help to be somewhat emotional.

At a post-US Olympic trials conference, Simone shared, “They want to see the downfall, which is really unfortunate because sports haven’t seen athletes like we’ve seen before. So you really have to give them their flowers in the sport because once they’re gone, you’re going to miss them.” But alongside this somber note, there was also a hopeful hint.

Will Simone Biles catch up with the demographic shake-up in gymnastics?

When one of her former teammates had a baby late last year, Simone Biles confessed in an interview with the Associated Press that she felt a twinge of “that’s what I should be doing.” But nope, not yet. Two decades into her gymnastics journey, Biles is still at the top of her game, as evident in her 9th Olympic medal clinch at the Paris Olympics. Why?

“I think with everything I’ve been through, I want to push the limits, I want to see how far I can go,” she said. “I want to see what I’m still capable of so once I step away from this sport, I can truly be happy with my career and say I gave it my all.” Even her mom, Nellie Biles, said, “Knowing Simone and just the fighter that she is, she will definitely want to leave on what she considers on top. That I think is what Simone wants for Simone.” Moreover, there has been a paradigm shift in women’s gymnastics as far as the age factor is concerned.

Women’s gymnastics have historically been ruled by teenagers. all but one of the last 13 Olympic champions were teenagers, including Simone (19) in 2016 Rio Sunisa Lee (18), in Tokyo in 2021. But, look at the US team this year. Barring Hezley Rivera, all are mature women in their 20s. Overall, in the US, the average age of active gymnasts is on the rise.

Aimee Boorman, Simone’s coach in early career and the co-founder of GIGA, a professional women’s gymnastics league that will launch in 2025, thinks it is the culture of the gymnastics realm that has brought about the change.

“People have stopped telling them that they can’t do it. They’ve stopped telling them they’re washed up at 17 or 18. … The stigma of ‘little girls in pretty boxes’ is not a thing anymore,” she said, referring tacitly to the era of oppressive coaching regime. Even Simone herself had driven away age-related questions previously. After her comeback, she was repeatedly asked why she chose to do that while approaching 30.

“Because I can. Nobody is forcing me to do it. I wake up every day and choose to grind in the gym and come out here and perform for myself,” Simone had said after the U.S. Olympic trials. So do you think she’s setting her sights on entering the league of most decorated Olympians ever? Looking at all these, we can only say never say never!