USA gymnastics queen Simone Biles is set to be the undisputed star of the world championships, enhancing her status as the sport’s greatest athlete — even if she does not feel it.
“I never really feel like I’m a big name,” she told reporters in Stuttgart.
“Everyone puts that on me, I don’t really put it on myself.”
The 10-day event, which started Friday with qualifiers, will be the 22-year-old’s fifth worlds.
She seems destined to add to her record tally of 14 gold medals, but is quick to avoided putting pressure on herself.
“I never go into a competition trying to win — I just go into a competition trying to compete like I train,” she replied when asked how many golds she expects.
Yet she is the name to watch in Tuesday’s team final, the women’s all-round final on Thursday and the apparatus finals on the final weekend.
Her overall tally of 20 worlds medals ties Biles with Russia’s Svetlana Khorkina for the most won by a woman.
Another four in Stuttgart would put her past the all-time record of 23 held by Vitaly Scherbo, a men’s gymnastics star in the 1990s.
Biles is the clear favourite to win all-around world gold for the fifth time, extending her own record, yet she has endured testing times away from the sport in the last two years.
In January 2018, she admitted to being among the victims of Larry Nassar, the disgraced former doctor of the US women’s Olympic team, who was jailed for sexually abusing hundreds of girls and women.
In August, her brother was arrested and charged with a shooting which left three people dead last December.
Biles must put all that aside in Stuttgart to seemingly defy gravity as one of the best gymnasts the world has even seen.
She could also leave south-west Germany with four skills named after her.
She is to gymnastics what Usain Bolt is to athletics and Michael Phelps is to swimming, yet while she admires the pair, she rejects the notion of being classed GOAT — greatest of all time — for her own protection.
