The first time I saw Simone Biles in competition, she didn’t win. This, it would turn out, was an exceedingly rare experience, because winning has become synonymous with the Texan—it’s something she’s done more of than any other gymnast who ever tiptoed across a balance beam. Many gymnastics fans were introduced to Biles when she was already in the middle of her first gold medal run, at the 2013 world championships in Antwerp, Belgium. Others might have heard of her after she hoisted gold at the 2015 worlds in Glasgow. That competition wrapped up less than a year before the 2016 Olympics were set to begin. By the time the Rio Games began, even casual fans understood that Biles’s eventual win in the all-around was considered…
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