2024 Summer Olympics medals contender Simone Biles has shown her approval for Team USA’s video at the Paris opening ceremony, which features the gymnastics great and several of her team-mates being serenaded by pop star Beyonce.
Biles is among the first competitors to appear in the promotion, in which Beyonce calls the six-time world champion “my girl” and “the greatest of all time”.
“Get a look at America, y’all,” the cultural icon says, dressed in a glittering Team USA outfit matching the theme of her lastest album, Cowboy Carter.
“These hopes and dreams, these superstars who represent us: the people of this big, bold, beautiful, complicated nation.”
Beyonce Olympics video
Tennis prodigy Coco Gauff, swimmers Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky and sprinters Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson are also among those named by Beyonce.
“Come on, you’ve got to love Noah and Sha’Carri,” she says, adding that Biles is “born to fly, destined to inspire”.
. @itsshacarri stays stylin’ ✨
📺: @NBCOlympics & @peacock #ParisOlympics | #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/wf2dVt3pjY
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) July 26, 2024
“The fastest man and woman on the planet, they’ll race the world – any time, any place. That pride and that joy, that’s what gets me about this team.
“That’s what makes me believe in this team… I can’t wait to see what they pull off in these next 16 days.”
Here we go… @USASwimming ❤️🇺🇸 #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/Gow32VSvbx
— Katie Ledecky (@katieledecky) July 26, 2024
Simone Biles: ‘Podium training’
Biles, whose campaign starts on Sunday, shared the video on social media alongside a series of heart emojis.
The 27-year-old won four gold medals and a bronze at the 2016 Games and a silver and two bronzes at Tokyo 2020.
Team USA are favourites to prevail in her sport this time around, and Biles said she was in “podium training” in a post less than 24 hours before Beyonce’s video was released.
Will there be a SIXTH element named after Simone Biles after #Paris2024?
She’ll need to compete it without major error in competition in Paris, and if she does, she’ll have at least one skill named “The Biles” on every event!#artisticgymnastics #olympics pic.twitter.com/S2MaDdLxfu
— Gymnastics Now (@Gymnastics_Now) July 26, 2024
Biles Olympics skill
On the same day, Biles submitted an original skill on uneven bars to the International Gymnastics Federation on.
The move, which involves a forward circle around the lower bar before turning a handstand into a 540-degree pirouette, will become the sixth to bear her name if she completes it on Sunday.