Ahead of Paris Olympics, Simone Biles wins 2024 ESPY Award for Best Comeback Performance

Simone Biles, fresh off qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics in women’s gymnastics, has won the 2024 ESPY Award for Best Comeback Performance, her latest accolade since returning from a two-year hiatus.

She received the award in absentia on Thursday night at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, where retired tennis star Serena Williams hosted. 

"She's busy obviously, getting ready to bring all those gold medals home,” said presenter Bryan Tyree Henry while honoring Biles from afar with NFL star Myles Garrett.

"Simone, you are an inspiration… you are a champion and the only person you have anything to prove to is Simone."

Biles is the first-ever Black woman to receive the Comeback Performance ESPY, which has now gone to Black athletes for three years in a row. Biles’ fellow Catholic Klay Thompson took home the honor in 2022 after winning his fourth NBA championship with the Golden State Warriors after two seasons lost due to injury.

The annual ESPYs broadcast is produced annually by ESPN and honors athletes from around the world who compete in the United States.

Biles has most recently qualified for her third Olympic Games, a feat not seen since Black Catholic gold medalist Dominique Dawes accomplished the same 24 years ago. Biles, now 27 years old, is the most decorated gymnast in world history, having won 37 world or Olympic medals since her professional debut.

She took two years away from the sport after a mental health scare in 2021, when she experienced mid-air disorientation during her signature events at the Tokyo Olympics. She eventually withdrew from the competition, only managing bronze on beam and silver in the team event. Biles later said she prioritized her mental health over risking her body for a better medal showing.

During her break from competition, she became a worldwide mental health advocate and worked with fellow American gymnasts at her family’s training center in Texas. Two of them have now qualified alongside her for the 2024 Olympics.

Biles herself returned to competition last year, quickly regaining her dominant form and winning the all-around at the 2023 U.S. Classic, the U.S. Nationals, and the World Athletics Championships (where she also took first in the balance beam and floor exercises).

Her longevity in the sport has now spanned more than a decade, and her trip to Paris will make her the oldest American Olympic qualifier in women’s gymnastics since the 1950s. She is the favorite to take home gold, coming off her ninth national championship earlier this year, where she took first in every event. 

Biles was selected to the U.S. women’s gymnastics Olympic team this month in Minneapolis, where she placed first in the all-around at the trials competition by more than five points, also besting the field in the floor and taking second on the uneven bars. 

Biles has now won two awards for her return to the pinnacle of the sport, including the 2024 Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year, as well as this week’s ESPY.

In addition to winning the Best Female Athlete ESPY in 2017 following the Rio Olympics, Biles received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Joe Biden in 2022, becoming the youngest person ever to receive the honor.

Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.

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