"I'm terrified and coach's like 'Did you not hear me?'"- When Simone Biles recalled being scared to do vault routine for first time after Rio Olympics

Simone Biles took nearly a two-year break from the sport after winning five medals including four golds at the 2016 Rio Olympics. After returning to training for the first time, the American gymnast had claimed to be terrified of doing the vault routine for the first time but eventually did after being pushed by coach Laurent Landi.

Before making her Olympic debut in 2016, Biles had taken the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships by storm in the preceding three events. She won two gold medals on her debut in 2013 before winning four each in the next two events to become the most decorated gymnast in the event's history.

She continued her dominance at the 2016 Rio Olympics, winning four gold medals again in team, all-around, vault, and floor exercise competitions. She also won a bronze on balance and later took a break and skipped the entirety of the 2017 gymnastics season.

When Biles returned to training in 2018, she was terrified to do the skills on the first day. Speaking in an interview with USA Gymnastics in April of that year, the 27-year-old said:

"In the beginning I thought, on the first day I would at least come in and do some conditioning, you know and then I started conditioning and then he was like, 'Okay let's go to Evans' and I was telling Laurent (Landi) you know I have not run down a lot runway since my Olympic vault and I'm like I'm terrified and he's like great we are going over and you are doing vaults." [2:55 onwards]

While Biles was reluctant to do the vault practice, Laurent pressured her before she eventually obliged.

"I said what, did you not hear me and he goes, 'did you not hear me? So let's get started'. So that was kind of the beginning of that," Simone Biles added.

The seven-time Olympic champion made a dominant comeback on her return at the 2018 World Championships, winning four golds and one bronze medal yet again.

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Simone Biles took another year-long gap after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Artistic Gymnastics - Olympic Games Paris 2024: Simone Biles in action - (Source: Getty)

Simone Biles was at her relentless best at the 2019 World Championships and won an astonishing five gold medals. However, when the competition resumed after COVID-19 and she reached Tokyo for the Olympic Games, little went right for the American icon.

Biles struggled with twisties, a mental health condition where gymnasts lose sense of their presence in the air, and withdrew from all the medal events except balance beam, where she defended her bronze medal from the 2016 Olympics. She took a break to focus on her mental health afterward and skipped the entirety of the 2022 season.

Despite being unsure about her return to the sport after the Tokyo scare, Simone Biles made yet another roaring comeback at the World Championships in 2023. Alongside winning four golds and one silver medal, she executed the hardest vault skill in history, the Yurchenko Double Pike, to perfection and got it named after her (the Biles II). Her Olympic comeback in 2024 was equally incredible, winning three golds and one silver.