Simone Biles not only wowed the crowd with her stellar floor exercise performance, but she grabbed the attention of Ms. Taylor Swift as well!
The seven-time Olympian topped the leaderboard on night one of the 2024 Olympic Trials, scoring 58.900 all-around. Her teammates, Jordan Chiles and Suni Lee, trailed with scores of 56.400 and 56.025, respectively.
While her performance on vault got a standing ovation from fans for her Yurchenko double pike, her floor routine, which was performed to Taylor Swift’s “…Ready For It” and “Delresto (Echoes)” by Travis Scott and Beyoncé, is going viral
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… Ready For It?
Simone Biles is once again going viral, proving she is still the GOAT despite dropping out of the 2020 Olympics, citing mental health and the “twisties.”
The 27-year-old’s floor routine kicked off with a bang as the iconic thumps of Swift’s “… Ready For It?” come over the loudspeakers. The gymnast wasted no time as she performed a few small dance moves before going into her first tumbling pass — a triple-double — which is the “hardest tumbling pass in the world,” according to the commentator.
After watching the jaw-dropping routine, several sports fans commented on how incredible Biles is, calling her “Ms. GOAT” and “phenomenal.” Biles even caught Ms. Swift’s attention!
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Taylor Swift Says She Watched Simone Biles’s Floor Routine ‘So Many Times’
After NBC’s video of Simone Biles went viral, Taylor Swift took to social media to give the Olympian her stamp of approval!
“Watched this so many times and still unready. She’s ready for it tho,” Swift wrote on X, per People Magazine, after seeing Biles’s performance, which was inspired by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, a groundbreaking contemporary dance company founded by Ailey in 1958.
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“I wanted to have an Alvin Ailey mindset just because of what they represented,” Grégory Milan, the French choreographer behind the routine, told the New York Times of Biles’s routine. “At the beginning, I had in mind that she would do something that shows she’s emerging, that she’s breaking the barriers a bit of gymnastics to say: ‘It’s over now, I’m not a little girl anymore. After everything I’ve gone through, I’m now a businesswoman, I’m a married woman, I’m a happy woman.’”
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Behind-The-Scenes Of Simone Biles’s Performance
Throughout the performance, the seven-time Olympian moves with grace and elegance, something that was incorporated with a thought in mind.
“I wanted her to appear noble with something very pure, with her magnificent arms, the look in her eyes. I wanted something more athletic, more square, more geometrical,” Milan said of the choreography. “Sometimes you don’t need too much, just a look, a way to position your arm, the way you carry a movement, and that’s what Simone succeeded in doing.”
“We feel she’s at peace, she’s happy, she’s calm so that when she heads to the corner to do her big tumbling passes, she needs to feel grounded, feel strong, feel safe to start her tumbling pass,” he continued.
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Reflecting On The 2020 Tokyo Olympics
Simone Biles dropped out of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as she struggled with mental health and the pressure of being in the spotlight. Her decision sparked a conversation about the challenges star athletes encounter and listening to their bodies.
“It’s really important to use that support system and know they’re there for you and not against you, because at the end of the day, us as humans, we hate asking for help,” Biles said when advocating for mental health in 2021. “We think we can do it on our own, but sometimes we just can’t. So use every outlet given to you.”
After she decided to drop out, she thought the public would turn on her and that she would be “banned” from the U.S.
“I thought I was going to be banned from America ‘cause that’s what they tell you: ‘Don’t come back if it’s not gold. Gold or bust. Don’t come back,'” Biles said on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “If I could’ve got on a plane and flown home, I would’ve done it. But as soon as I landed I was like ‘Oh, America hates me, the world is going to hate me, and I can only see what they’re saying on Twitter right now,’ that was my first thought.”
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How To Watch Day Two Of The Women’s 2024 Olympic Trials
Day two of the Women’s Olympic Trials will take place on Sunday, June 30. Simone Biles will start on vault, with her first attempt around 8:20 p.m. ET. She will then move on to uneven bars and balance beam before finishing on the floor.
It will broadcast on NBC and USA Network, with all NBC coverage streaming on Peacock.