Simone Biles does not know where she will be next October, when the 2017 World Championships will be held. Understandable, considering it is hard enough for her to keep track of where she will be tomorrow.
She has been living out of a suitcase, a very organized suitcase with pants on one side and tops on the other, since winning four Olympic gold medals in Rio. Her whirlwind travel schedule is full of media appearances, sponsor visits and a USA Gymnastics tour of shows. More than once she has woken up in a hotel, unsure which city she was in.
“Everything has happened so fast,” she said in a phone interview from the Team USA Awards red carpet in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. “But it’s definitely amazing.”
Biles, 19, reiterated that she plans on taking a break from competition for about a year.
“There’s no way I could train 100% and still do everything that I am doing now,” she said.
Biles is not ready to set a date for her return to competitive gymnastics. She is not planning on entering the 2017 P&G Championships, which will be held Aug. 17-20, almost exactly a year after the 2016 Olympics.
“Oh goodness, I think that still falls under a year,” she said. “We will see. I could always change my mind.”
The 2017 World Championships will be held next October in Montreal. None of the previous four U.S. Olympic women’s all-around champions competed at Worlds the year after their Olympic triumphs, but Biles has not ruled it out.
She was asked if she had thought about competing in Montreal.
“I have and I haven’t,” said Biles, the three-time defending world all-around champion. “I try not to think too far ahead.”
It remains to be seen who will coach her once she returns to training. Aimee Boorman, who coached Biles since she was 7, is moving from Texas for a new gymnastics job in Florida.
Biles “loves Florida” and “thinks the whole state is beautiful” based on her two visits to the Sunshine State. But she is not sure if she will follow her coach to Florida.
“Florida is quite a ways away, but anything can happen,” she said. “We will have to see whenever I decide to start up again.”
Biles was speaking on behalf of DICK’s Sporting Goods, who pledged a $1,000 donation for every Olympic and Paralympic Games medal won by a U.S. athlete in Rio. By winning five Olympics medals, Biles was directly responsible for a $5,000 contribution.
There are six Olympic medals available for female artistic gymnastics. Biles did not compete in the uneven bars final in Rio, but that could change at the Tokyo Games.
“My bar just needs to be a little bit stronger,” she said. “We’ll have to see once I go back to training to up my difficulty if it’s possible for me to get a sixth.”
Until then, Biles is enjoying her celebrity status. Since Rio, she has met Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian and Usher, and even filmed a music video with Jake Miller.
“I have no idea when this whole process slows down,” Biles said. “That would be a question for the world, not me.”
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