Paris Postcard: Magician Simone sparkles as Teddy delivers
They are the world’s best sports photographers and she is Simone Biles, the world’s best gymnast. The greatest of all time? Well, that’s what it says around her neck. On Thursday evening I went to see the American superstar in the individual all-around final.Biles has been one of the hottest tickets in Paris during the Games.Tom Cruise and Ariana Grande were among those who watched her win team gold earlier in the week and Thursday was a similarly starry affair.Zinedine Zidane, Seth Rogen and Kendall Jenner were all among the crowd, while the IOC president Thomas Bach was there to present the medals.Le Monde ran a full page that day with a picture of her vaulting in mid-air and the headline: La Magicienne. It hardly needs translation.Her USA teammate Sunisa Lee and Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade were the main challengers and after three rotations it was going down to the wire.Everything rested on Biles’ floor routine, which would be the final performance of the competition. That gave the occasion a cinematic element and she produced a showstopper to match the moment.To see Biles run, jump, spin and flip is to witness everything the Olympics should be about. Faster, higher, stronger. She can do it all and still land perfectly.It was 90 seconds of pure magic. A combination of co-ordination, balance, agility and power that defied belief. Simply incroyable.The result seemed beyond doubt before the judges’ scores came in and the swarm of photographers jostled for position to capture her reaction.In the end, Biles won gold with Andrade in silver and bronze for Lee.
