BILES HAS CAPTURED AMERICA, WITH DOUBLE GLORY BRINGING MAJOR AUDIENCES

Her massive triumphs create a special place in Olympics history and lend relief to the TV world, where crowds for NBC’s coverage nearly double numbers in Tokyo with more than 34 million viewers a day

     She was so hot and soggy on this summer night, she used the American flag to dry herself off. The red, white and blue cloth accommodated Simone Biles, who grinned and blew heart gestures when she won the gold medal and won’t be stopping ever again. The twisties are part of a turbulent past she has conquered.

     Leave no doubt about the grand luminary of the Paris Olympics. With a victory in the women’s all-around gymnastics final Thursday, after helping America win a team final, Biles has centered her mental apparatus alongside the gods of the Games. There was no guarantee she would find her mind in two events in a short week. We can stop our therapy sessions, I suppose, knowing she’ll be remembered for her perseverance and character amid three years of hellfire.

     Afterward, her GOAT necklace reappeared. She is the Greatest Of All Time, in her opinion, and who would disagree? “My necklace is just kind of an ode, because the people love it and some people hate it,” Biles said. “So it’s like the best of both worlds. I was like, ‘OK, if it goes well, we’ll wear the GOAT necklace.’ I know people will go crazy over it, but at the end of the day, it is crazy that I am in the conversation of ‘Greatest of all athletes’ because I just still think, ‘I’m Simone Biles from Spring, Texas who loves to flip.’ ”

     Give her this, too: Biles has swung back a forgotten sports event. Through almost a week, NBC has showcased her and a wealth of U.S. athletes to average more than 34 million viewers a day on cable and streaming. That’s nearly double what the programs struggled to earn in Tokyo. “Clearly, the Olympics are back,” said Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBCUniversal’s operation.

     It helps to have the aesthetic bubble of Biles, who is no taller than 4 feet 8 and needed a powerhouse display. She withdrew from the all-around in 2021 and almost moved on from her sport, debilitated by the twisties — blockage that didn’t let her grasp why or how she rotated in air. Her every flip became a watchdog exercise, but soon enough, we realized she was magnificent again. Even on the uneven bars in her final run, when her legs almost hit the floor, she didn’t lose poise. It helped to see her therapist at 7 a.m., as she does many days.

     “I was probably praying to every single God out there trying to refocus and recenter myself because that’s not the bars that I had been training,” Biles said. “I’m not the best bar swinger, but I can still swing some bars.”

     She returned and completed her balance beam and floor exercise, winning with a 15.066 score to take her sixth gold medal and ninth overall. Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade was close in the standings, turning Bercy Arena into last-gasp theater. “I don’t want to compete with Rebeca no more. I’m tired. Like, she’s way too close. I’ve never had an athlete that close,” she said. Biles won at 59.131, by a little more than a point, while teammate Sunisa Lee won bronze after battling through kidney diseases. These are the moments that make Americans watch from France, regardless of the time of day. Biles is 27 and paints an unforgettable story.

     How nice to see her take personal time after her victory to shout at new friends. “Good luck!” she said to Kevin Durant and Steph Curry of the basketball team.

     “America!’ Curry yelled.

     “One of the coolest things ever,” Devin Booker said.

     She has no need to escape again in Instagram-land. Her memories belong to the world, as former Olympic teammate McKayla Skinner knows. For some reason, she posted a message after the trials: “Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and depth isn’t what it used to be. Just notice like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.” So when Biles and Lee were celebrating the team win with Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera, the most accomplished of all U.S. gymnasts retorted on the photo: “lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions.”

     Hours later, Biles wrote: “oop I’ve been blocked” with various laughing emojis.

     “Put a finger down if Simone Biles just ended you,” wrote Lee.

     “When she blocks Simone,” Chiles wrote.

     Anyone can slash and burn when they win in the end. The name of the team, by the way, is “F.A.A.F.O.” Meaning, f— around and find out. The media tried with comments that Biles had quit in Tokyo, but to her credit, she used the shots to her advantage.

     Her mother, Nellie, is still proud of how she called out Snoop Dogg years ago. “Snoop, I don’t know if you know this, but Simone and you have known each other for a long time. Right, Nellie?” NBC’s Hoda Kotb said.

     “How? How Nellie?” Snoop asked.

     “I will never forget that we met you in Times Square. 2010,” she said. “And you said— ’cause we asked for a picture — two minutes. One, two, and you were gone.”

     One, two … and how many more medals? Simone will compete Saturday, Sunday and Monday in the vault, beam and floor events. From here on, she will blitz Paris, recalling how she rebelled at grim coaching moments when she began with the national team. “Nobody really would talk and laugh and all that stuff. But I was like, yeah, that’s not how I do things,” she said. “We don’t have to be put in the box anymore.”

     What hasn’t she done? She has transformed her sport from the years of serial rapist Larry Nassar. She has saved the Olympic Games from humdrum attitudes. And she has whipped the twisties.

     The GOAT always has more room for discussion.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.