Simone Biles is making it feel like 2016 all over again.

The four-time Olympic gold medalist returned to the SAP Center in San Jose, California, the same venue where she made her first Olympic team for the Olympic Games in Rio, and she looked every bit the part of the world’s best gymnast once more.

She followed up her stellar return to competition earlier this month at the U.S. Classic with a solid and spectacular performance in Wednesday’s (23 August 2023) official practice ahead of the 2023 U.S. Gymnastics Championships. Biles enters as the clear favourite to claim what would be her eighth U.S. all-around crown, a record.

The 26-year-old performed many of the elements that have become her signature in recent years, including the daring Yurchenko double pike which could become the fifth element named in her honour if she successfully competes it at the World Championships or Olympic Games.

All this comes after the newlywed only started to “buckle down” after her May nuptials to Green Bay Packer safety Jonathan Owens.

READ MORE:Simone Biles cheers on husband at Packers game, her friend steals spotlight

“Simone… This is where her greatness as a gymnast comes in. I think for a lot of us, it takes years to really get back on track,” Laurie Hernandez, Biles’ Rio 2016 teammate, told NBC Sports of the quick return to form. “So for her to truly be back in the spring and then be here competing in August, that’s phenomenal.”

It’s a boost for the sport, too, which saw a sold out NOW Arena welcome the five-time World all-around champion back to the competitive floor.

“Simone is an all-time great athlete and having her back definitely brings more attention to the sport gymnastics and this event as well. So we couldn’t be more excited,” said USA Gymnastics president Li Li Leung, a former U.S. national team member in her own right. “You’re gonna see some great gymnastics out of her, too.”

Four-time Olympic champion Simone Biles has made a triumphant return to gymnastics after a two-year break.

Biles announced in 2021 she was taking a break to work on her mental health.

“Everyone that was cheering – made posters, all of that in the crowd – it just made my heart melt that they still believe in me,” Biles said.

“It means the world because after everything that transpired in Tokyo, I worked on myself a lot.

“I still do therapy weekly and it has just been so exciting to come out here and have the confidence I had before.

Biles was given a rapturous reception at the Now Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, and won with an all-around score of 59.100 points.

“Everything has fallen into place. I feel really good about where I am now mentally and physically,” she said.

“I still think there are some things to work on in my routine but, for the first meet back, I would say it went pretty well. I’m very shocked and surprised. I’m very happy now that it is out of the way.”

She began on the uneven bars, where her score of 14.000 points was the third-best overall before claiming the meet’s top score on the balance beam with 14.800.

Biles drew cheers during and after every tumbling run on the floor exercise, her flips and landings bringing roars that were rewarded with a top score of 14.900 points.

She finished on vault, soaring high to notch another leading mark of 15.400.

Leanne Wong, 19, finished second, five points off the pace on 54.100, with 17-year-old Joscelyn Roberson third on 54.050.

It was Biles’ first competition since pulling out of five of her six finals at the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021.

She later explained she had been suffering from the ‘twisties’ – a mental block where gymnasts can lose their sense of space in the air.

Biles has yet to indicate whether she will aim to make next year’s Olympics in Paris.

She has qualified for the US national championships, which start on 24 August, and is hoping to compete for a world title in Antwerp in October.

“I always kind of knew [I’d return] as soon as everything happened in Tokyo,” she said. “This time I’m doing it for me.

“I worked a lot on myself and I believe in myself a little bit more. It’s just coming back out here and starting those first steps again.”

Simone Biles and her husband, Green Packers safety Jonathan Owens, stayed up until 3am to relive her glorious return to competitive gymnastics last weekend.

After two years out to focus on her mental health, the four-time Olympic gold medalist won the All-Around, Balance Beam and Floor Exercise titles at the U.S. Classic.

The 26-year-old withdrew from the women’s team final at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 after suffering the ‘twisties’ – a terrifying mental block that causes athletes to lose track of their position in mid-air.

But after her return in Illinois, Owens sprinted to the locker room at Lambeau Field to see how she fared.

‘I text her right after, because I knew her phone was probably blowing up,’ Owens, 28, said, according to ESPN.

I just told her to call me whenever she gets a moment. So I didn’t get to really FaceTime her until around 11, but she was excited.’

He added that they ‘stayed up until about 3 in the morning just on the phone, just talking and reliving the moment.’

‘I know it felt like a dream to her so I was super excited for her,’ he said.

Biles and Owens married earlier this year and the gymnast said following her return that she is in a good place – both mentally and physically.

‘Everything has fallen into place,’ Biles, 26, said after the win, according to ESPN.

‘I feel really good about where I am right now, mentally and physically. There are some things to work on in my routines, but for the first meet back, I would say it went pretty well. I’m very shocked and surprised.’

Biles pulled out of four subsequent individual finals at the Olympics, before making a brief return in the balance beam to take bronze, but has since not competed and has spent the last two years away from the sport.

She later hinted was in part due to the sexual abuse she had suffered at the hands of pedophile doctor Larry Nassar.

The city itself will be one of the brightest stars at the Paris Olympics, with ceremonies on the Seine, beach volleyball by the Eiffel Tower and a marathon route that passes through Versailles.

In the end, though, it will be the 10,500 athletes who will grab the spotlight once the festivities begin one year from Wednesday (July 26). Simone Biles is on a comeback, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone never left. A skateboarder who also likes to surf named Sky Brown is in contention to win gold medals in two events some 9,000 miles apart (more on that in a moment) and Katie Ledecky is still swimming strong heading into her fourth Olympics.

SIMONE BILES

Simone Biles will be 27 by the time the Paris Games open, which is considered retirement age for most American female gymnasts. But Biles has been redefining what’s possible ever since she burst onto the scene 10 years ago. Her game-changing legacy included the decision to exit the competition at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago, conceding her mental health was not where it needed to be to risk her life in pursuit of an Olympic gold medal. Over the last two years, Biles took time off and got married. She recently committed to a comeback, and her first competition on that road is set for Aug. 5. That and a few other meets this year will give the world a sense of where Biles stands, but if she makes the Olympic team, she will go in as its biggest star.