When Simone Biles officially cemented her place on Team USA for her third Olympic Games , she made history in another way. At 27 years old, Biles is America's oldest female gymnast to compete at the Games in 72 years, a fact that she recently acknowledged during a press conference after the U.S.
Olympic trials on Sunday. Reflecting on her journey back to the Olympics after exiting the Tokyo Games early due to the "twisties," Biles quipped that she would have to apologize to former teammate Aly Raisman , who was 22 when they competed together at the 2016 Rio Games. "I definitely have to apologize to Aly for calling her grandma because, whew," she said during the conference, according to Gymnastics Now .
Biles had been 19 years old at the time. "I feel like I'm way older now than me calling her grandma when we were younger." "And, you know, it's what, 11 [p.
m.]? So, it's definitely past my bedtime," she quipped. "So, I know Aly would be cracking up right now.
I'm a lot older and more mature. What was the rest of the question? See, I'm forgetting." Joining Biles are three other returning Olympians -- Suni Lee, Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles -- and 16-year-old newcomer and Junior World silver medalist Hezly Rivera.
The decorated Olympian set the tone at the outset of the women's trials . Despite coming in second behind Leanne Wong in the first two rotations, she led at the end of the third (42.925) and did not look back from there.
Biles led after the first day with a score of 58.9.