Simone Biles Has Changed Gymnastics Forever

The GOAT continues to revolutionize the sport on and off the mat.

After an uncharacteristic error on floor exercise during the first night of the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in Kansas City this past Friday, Simone Biles saluted the judges, left the podium, and proclaimed: “I’m just pissed off already.” NBC’s perennially excitable gymnastics commentator, Tim Dagget, concurred, informing viewers that this was unequivocally the worst meet he’d ever seen Biles complete. (She later referred to her own perfectly decent bar routine as a “piece of shit” on live television, forever cementing herself as my simultaneous swearing and gymnastics hero.)

Still, there’s no denying that Biles—who recently wore an actual bedazzled goat head on the back of her leotard in a training session—remains the greatest of all time. Yes, it’s been established that she is eons better than all of the women and most of the men in the world of elite gymnastics. But what casual fans may not realize is that her greatness goes beyond her medal count and margins of victory. Biles has pushed the sport to places where it’s never dared go, and even after she retires, there will be no unringing that particular bell.

Biles’ only competition is herself, and so even on that alleged worst and most horrendous trash garbaggio night of her life, she still ended in first place by almost 2 full points, once again leaving the deepest and best women’s gymnastics field in the world in the dust. Athletes’ scores from both nights were totaled to determine their final standings, and after a markedly better second night on Sunday, Biles also ended up winning the whole competition by 4.95, meaning that she could have counted four more falls and still claimed her sixth national title.

And in case that dominant margin of victory were not enough triumph for one competition, Biles also—as her last act on Day 1—destroyed a new balance beam dismount, the most difficult and daring in the history of the sport: a double-double, or a double somersault with a full twist in each flip. This is a skill that is usually reserved for the floor exercise—an apparatus that is 40 feet wide and outfitted with 11 centimeters of springs. Biles did it off the end of a lightly padded plank 4 inches wide and 4 feet off the ground, and she made it look easy.

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