Simone Biles brings back (and lands) big twisting skills, a greater victory than any title

HARTFORD, Conn. — If the music at the beginning of Simone Biles’ floor routine didn’t send a message, her first pass did.

With the pounding beat of Taylor Swift’s "Ready for it" pulsating through the arena — “Baby let the games begin. Let the games begin. Let the games begin.” — Biles brought back her triple twisting, double somersault, also known as the Biles II, at the U.S. Classic on Saturday night. It’s a pass she hasn’t done on floor since everything went sideways at the Tokyo Olympics, and the fact she’s put it back in her routine says loud and clear she is ready for whatever these next months bring.

“She’s feeling good. She’s looking good. She’s mentally and physically fit,” said Cecile Landi, who coaches Biles with her husband, Laurent Landi. “I don’t know if you can see it, but she’s way more relaxed and enjoying competing and having fun.

"Truly, I think she really found why she’s doing it. I think for the very first time, it’s truly for her.”

Struggling with mental health issues worsened by the isolation of the COVID restrictions at the Tokyo Olympics — no fans, no family and strict limitations on where athletes could go — Biles developed a case of “the twisties.” She could no longer tell where she was in the air, and she withdrew from the team competition, unwilling to jeopardize her physical safety. She would miss four individual event finals, too, before returning to win a bronze medal on balance beam.

She took time off, unsure if she wanted to come back. She got married and she and husband Jonathan Owens began building their dream house outside Houston. She also committed herself to doing regular work with a therapist, recognizing this was something she needed as a person even more than a gymnast.

When Biles returned last season, she did so with some guardrails. The Biles II was out on floor. So, too, her double twisting, double somersault dismount on uneven bars. She did the Yurchenko double pike vault (yes, also named the Biles II), but Laurent Landi stood on the mat ready to step in if something went wrong with the dangerous vault.

She still won her eighth U.S. title and sixth world title, both records, so she didn’t need the skills. She could afford the half-point deduction she got for having Laurent Landi on the mat. Odds were good she could do the same thing this season and still win gold at the Paris Olympics.

But Biles didn’t become the greatest gymnast the sport has seen by only doing what she needed to get by. She has pushed the outermost boundaries of the sport, wanting to see how far her talents and training could take her.

So the big twisting skills are back in. When Biles did the Yurchenko double pike vault Saturday, Laurent Landi was not on the podium.

“She just feels ready,” Cecile Landi said. “It just came organically. At training, she was fine. And today was the first time without a spotter standing there. So it was a huge deal.”

It was.

Again, Biles doesn’t need these skills to dominate. But they are a sign of her confidence and her comfort in her own skin.

“For me, it's just about getting through it, having the confidence and working on cleanliness. So I got through it,” Biles told NBC after the meet. “Of course, there's things to go home and fix, but I'm not mad about it."

She shouldn’t be. Biles finished with 59.5 points, her best all-around score since Tokyo, and was 1.85 points ahead of Shilese Jones, an all-around medalist at the last two world championships. She posted the highest scores on both vault and floor, and second-best on uneven bars and balance beam.

This was her first meet of the season, too. She had so much power on the triple-double she went well out of bounds on floor, and that’s something she’ll get cleaned up over the next couple of weeks. She looked more relieved than happy with her bars routine. She had to run backwards a few steps to control the landing of her vault.

But this was a start. A great one, given the significance of the things she did and the milestones she achieved.

As Swift sings, “Let the games begin.”

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.