RIO DE JANEIRO — Let the argument begin.
Letap start it by awarding medals for the most outstanding athlete of the Summer Olympics.
Gold: Simone Biles
Silver: Michael Phelps
Bronze: Usain Bolt
Biles stands 4 feet, 8 inches tall. But this American gymnast towers above all other Olympic superheroes at Rio 2016.
Disagree? Go build your own podium.
The goose-bump moment of the Games crawled up my arms Tuesday and kissed the back of my neck, when Biles was at her signature best.
Biles at her best is better than any other athlete in the world. More ego-crushing dominant to foes than Bolt is on the track. More no-way-that-just-happened mesmerizing than Phelps is in the pool.
“I don’t even consider myself competing against her. Itap like she’s at another level. I’m in awe watching her,” said U.S. teammate Aly Raisman, who finished second in the floor exercise to Biles. Raisman scored 15.500, destroying everybody in the field, except for Biles, who scored an untouchable 15.966.
A for-the-ages moment happened with Biles tumbling across the mat. It beats me why they call it the floor exercise, because as U.S. team coordinator Martha Karoyli said, when Biles does her routine, she “lives in the sky.”
The move that thrills is called the Biles, because nobody else in the world is athletic enough, crazy enough and confident enough to pull it off.
Her signature move starts with a backward, blind takeoff. Then it gets interesting. Defying gravity in a way Michael Jordan never imagined, Biles somersaults twice, head over heels, in a Superman pose. At the end of the second somersault, she does a half turn before landing, producing more torque than Tiger Woods ever did with his golf swing. When touching down on terra firma, Biles celebrates by leaping like Bambi for joy.
Steeped in tradition, the Olympics still refers to the sport as artistic gymnastics. It sounds very ladylike. But Biles’ art is extreme sport set to show tunes. Itap Broadway without gravity.
I know chauvinists will kill me: How can a pixie possibly be the world’s greatest athlete?
“I don’t rank myself. That would be weird,” Biles said.
I’ve got nothing against Bolt. He has been the world’s fastest human longer than dinosaurs roamed the earth. When he stepped into the blocks Sunday night for the 100-meter finals, I was sipping a caipiroska in a seaside restaurant. Waiters stopped serving carpaccio. Cooks left the kitchen. Diners stood, staring at the television. After Bolt won gold in a time of 9.81 seconds, he congratulated himself, by declaring: “Somebody said I can be immortal.”
Bolt is already immortal. But, in 2016, he ain’t what he used to be. Biles is at the top of her game.
We all have watched Phelps grow up at the Olympics. For years, at Games from Athens to Beijing, he was an overgrown boy in a bubble. In the pool, Phelps had no peer. Outside the pool, he was a fish out of water. After winning gold five more times at age 31, Phelps is a man in full. He’s sober. He’s a dad. He’s not afraid to cry.
Before the Games began, USA swimming teammate Ryan Lochte predicted this would not be Phelps’ valediction as an Olympian.
“I honestly don’t think this is going to be his last Olympics,” Lochte claimed, as I chuckled. “I’m saying he’s going to come back again.”
I once was 100 percent convinced Jesse Owens, running in defiance of Adolf Hitler, was the greatest Olympian of all time. Now I’m not so certain. As a career achievement, Phelps’ 28 medals shout his case.
Right here, right now, however, Biles is a more intimidating force in her sport than Broncos linebacker Von Miller shedding a blocker and steamrolling toward a quarterback sack. And gymnastics is a full-contact sport. Every body in the game takes a pounding.
“The pain exists. It’s a matter of managing the pain,” U.S. gymnastics coach Mihai Brestyan said. “In swimming, all you are doing is coaching the wall.”
No contemporary can touch Biles. She competes only against legends.
“Simone Biles is definitely is the biggest talent for today. In 1976, Nadia Comaneci was the biggest talent. But that was in a different era,” said Karoyli, whose involvement in the sport spans the generation that separates Comaneci and Biles.
“They are both ahead of their time. They are on top of their time. … The other similarity is extraordinary mental toughness, extraordinary confidence level, which made them not be afraid in these big arenas. In front of all those judges and in front of all those competitors, (Biles and Comaneci) come in and say: ‘I have this under my belt.’ ”
Comaneci was a perfect 10. Forty years ago, gymnastics were artistic. Now, gymnasts are astronauts.
Biles is proof that even perfect can evolve into something more amazing.
