Backflips off the bed. Front tucks onto the couch. Handsprings in the hallway. My 7-year-old daughter’s life has been thoroughly overtaken by gymnastics and her hero, Simone Biles.

“I want to be just like her and go to the Olympics when I grow up,” she told me Monday, her hands emulating Biles’s gestures. “She does cool flips and dance moves. But she works hard.”

With Biles, now the most decorated U.S. Olympic gymnast, clinching a gold medal Tuesday in Paris in the women’s team final, her performances this week have been, by far, the most important ones to watch in our household. Her every move has a profound impact on my daughter’s own journey into the sport, as if she might be one of her coaches. As I watch her fingers slide back and forth on her iPad to get the slow-mo of Biles executing moves that have upended the norms of women’s gymnastics on a global scale, many named after her, I am in awe of her commitment to be like Biles, who was introduced to gymnastics at the age of 6.

But on Sunday, when Biles injured her left calf muscle while warming up for a floor exercise routine, I winced along with most of America, fearful that her historic run might be over in an instant. My daughter, however, was much calmer.

“I love hard days,” she said, having little doubt that Biles would go on to notch the day’s highest scores. I’d gotten used to such confidence, having watched my daughter cry through warm-ups on the vault, her “worst event,” only to go on to win gold in regional and national competitions.

Her confidence does still give me some pause, however, if only because it developed so fast.

Three years ago, I first realized that my daughter had potential as a gymnast. After spending most of her ballet classes doing cartwheels, we traded in her tutu for a gymnastic leotard, and during her first formal class, the coach asked me if she’d be interested in moving up to a more advanced level. Before I knew it, we’d joined a gymnastics club in Atlanta and I was promptly informed by the coach that her skills were “exceptional.”

Soon, my friends had a nickname for her, “Baby Biles,” and she ended her first season winning first place in vault and floor exercise at a national competition.

She now calls gymnastics her “gift,” and I have to keep reminding myself that she’s just 7. The truth is I’ve been nervous about my child’s physical abilities since she climbed out of her crib at 9 months. At the age of 2, she jumped off a bed to try to land in an open drawer, hitting her head on a metal knob and requiring three stitches. At 3, a scared teacher had to explain to me how she jumped out of her playpen and broke her elbow, an injury that required surgery.

The work ethic required to get good at a gravity-defying sport is no small thing — for both the young athlete and their parents. There are the daily practices, the drives to and from the gym, the daily emails from her gymnastics club, the travel to meets across the country.

The financial costs involved have been significant enough to make me reconsider whether it’s worth it. There are endless fees: monthly tuition, thousands to cover the costs incurred at meets, organizational dues, coaches salaries and more. In just one year of competing, we’ve dipped into our savings more times than I care to admit.

Our whole family — including our daughter’s two siblings — has made sacrifices, including fewer shared meals. When my daughter gets home from a three-and-a-half-hour practice at 8:30 p.m., she heads straight to the shower then to bed.

As a mother, it’s especially hard. I can’t interrupt practice to kiss her bloody calluses because she’s now a competitive athlete who is being trained to endure that pain. I’m filled with anxiety when I think that my little baby could one day leave me to live in another state to train with a renowned coach or at a famous gym, as is so common for top gymnastic prospects. Normal educational routines are already disrupted because of the demands of practice, and her new coach has mentioned bringing in a tutor to maximize the time that she can spend in the gym.

When the demands of training grew, Simone Biles was homeschooled during her high school years, as I learned while assisting my daughter on her Black history project in first grade. The poster she made that accompanied her report read, “Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time.” We also learned that Biles was diagnosed at an early age with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and used gymnastics as a way to help steady her.

“I get really distracted easily, but gymnastics helps me focus,” my daughter told me when I asked her about the similar attention challenges she and Biles may face. “Whenever I do my dance-throughs or my tumbling, my mind is thinking of how tight I should be. I also have to listen to my coaches. But when I don’t go to gymnastics, I’m all over the place.”

It’s statements like that that help me allay my own fears, but it’s also seeing the pride she has for the 30-plus medals that are displayed on the walls of her room, and the smile on her face when I pick her up from practice.

So, as we watched Simone Biles’s performances this week, we viewed them not just as fans, but as fellow competitors, and maybe someday, fellow Olympians.

Simone Biles said she closed her time at the Paris Olympics “bawling my eyes out” to her teammates after a glorious run in which she secured four medals — three gold and one silver.

America’s gymnast sweetheart had called this year’s competition her “Redemption Tour” and did not disappoint, leading this year’s team to a heart-thumping performance and a team gold after it took second at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Biles, 27, bowed out of the Olympics on Monday after having won silver in the women’s floor exercise final following multiple penalties and after she fell on the balance beam.

Speaking about how she felt ending her stint at the world’s greatest competition stage, Biles, an 11-time Olympic medalist, said it hasn’t quite sunk in.

“I don’t think I will until one day I decide to retire. But yesterday, once we got back to the village, I looked at Jordan [Chiles] and just started bawling my eyes out,” she said Tuesday on NBC’s “TODAY” show. “And she was like, ‘I knew it was going happen — I just didn’t know when!’”

“I think I was just so full of emotion and I finally released all of that. I was so proud, happy, bittersweet that the journey’s over. It’s so crazy. It happened too quick. My third Olympics!” she added.

But she may not be done with the Games just yet.

“You know, you never say never. The next Olympics is on home turf. I’m just going to relax and see where life takes me,” she told Hoda Kotb about the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

Biles reflected on her star career, saying: “If not for my parents and adoption, I wouldn’t be here today.” Ronald and Nellie Biles adopted her and her younger sister, Adria, when she was 6.

Biles appeared for the interview with a boot on her leg, as Kotb noted she had a calf injury during the Games that had been bothering her.

“Right now it’s just precautionary. We’re resting up as much as possible; we have a tour in a couple of weeks. I’m just going to rest and heal,” Biles said.

Biles, who has been vocal about mental health, also spoke about how she handled self-care during the competition, revealing she kept up her routine sessions with her therapist.

“I saw her about three or four times throughout this whole entire process, and it didn’t matter if it was before all-around or after qualifications. I went back to the village and I got on a call with her and did my therapy session because that’s routine for me now,” she said, noting that it made her feel “comfortable and confident to compete.”

Biles took a two-year break from competing after the Olympics in Tokyo, where she grappled with the “twisties.” She cited the emotional toll at the time and became a mental health advocate.

She said that in her future outside the mat, she’d like to have kids with her husband, Jonathan Owens, who was seen in Paris cheering her on.

“He was so excited. He was more excited to pin-trade,” she joked. “Obviously, he loved seeing me complete. He was still keeping score. For him, it meant the world to him because he’s seen the amount of hours that I’ve put in. So to actually see in person, he was like, ‘Wow, this is amazing’ and he was just so excited to be there.”

Biles said she wants to be remembered for more than the gold and the glory. Instead, she simply wants to be remembered as “someone who loved the sport, had fun doing it and was just authentically herself.”

“She had the best floor routine of the day and in the Olympics,” Biles said of Andrade’s performance at the finals event.

Simone Biles explained the meaning behind her and her teammate Jordan Chiles’ bow to Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade as she was awarded the gold medal in the women’s floor exercise at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Aug. 5.

“I think it’s all about sportsmanship, and we don’t care whether we win or lose. We’re always going to keep a good face and support our competitors because they’ve worked just as hard as we have for that moment,” Biles said on TODAY Aug. 6.

“So you have to give them their flowers,” she continued. “And that’s exactly what me and Jordan were doing, and we were so happy for her. She deserved it. She had the best floor routine of the day and in the Olympics. So it’s like, yeah, she deserved it.”

After the bow, Andrade reached for their hands. The iconic moment immediately went viral on social media, as fans commended the sweet moment of sportsmanship and sisterhood.

Biles won the silver medal with her floor routine, and Chiles scooped up the bronze. After submitting an inquiry into Chiles’ score, the judges gave her a new score that sent her onto the podium.

When the results came in, Biles was right there next to Chiles celebrating her win.

“She’s worked so hard for that moment. We really put those routines in, in training … no matter what pressure we’re under, they tried to make us hit as many routines as possible — like well done,” she said.

“And so just to see how excited Jordan was, and I knew that meant the world to her,” she continued. “I was so happy for her because it’s been a long run and we’ve done this for so long together and competing again on an Olympic stage is crazy.”

Biles added she shared a special moment with Chiles once the competition had ended and the pair were back in the Olympic Village together.

“Yesterday, once we got back to the village, I looked at Jordan and I just started bawling my eyes out,” Biles said. “She was like, ‘I knew it was gonna happen. I just didn’t know when!’ And I think it was just, I was so full of emotion and I finally released all of that.”

“I was so proud, happy, bittersweet that the journey is over. It’s so crazy, it happened so quick — my third Olympics,” she continued.

During warmups for the floor routine, Biles fell and then re-taped her calf before she performed her final floor routine. It appears that Biles has been dealing with a lower-leg injury since the beginning of the gymnastics competition in Paris.

She arrived on TODAY wearing a boot, which she said was just precautionary.

“We’re resting up as much as possible. We have tour in a couple of weeks, so I’m just gonna rest and heal,” Biles said.

As for what is next for Biles, the 27-year-old didn’t rule out competing in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

“You know, you never say never,” she said. “The next Olympics is on home turf, so you just never know.”

Biles concluded: “I’m just gonna relax and see where life takes me.”

The Olympian also shared that she and her husband Jonathan Owens want to become parents in the future.

“Me and Jonathan always talk about kids, and he would have had them like, yesterday, if he could have,” she said. “Obviously we both have goals that we want to achieve before we start a family. But yes, that’s definitely in our future.”

PARIS, Aug 6 (Reuters) – Simone Biles is leaving Paris with her head held high, proud of becoming a three-time Olympian and continuing to show the world how dominant she is in gymnastics, and doing it with grace. At the Games, the 27-year-old collected gold medals in the team, all-around and vault competitions, as well as a silver on the floor exercise. Reflecting on her Paris experience on Tuesday, the 11-time Olympic medallist told Reuters that while she is still processing the events of the last couple of weeks, she is proud of her determination. “(I am) just showing my strength through and through and just coming out on top each and every time so I’m just really proud of that,” she said.