Simone Biles’ 2021 Olympic Games are not over yet. She is planning a return competition for the final day of the gymnastics individual event finals after missing most of the Olympics to date.
USA Gymnastics confirmed on Twitter that Biles is planning on participating in the balance beam final on Tuesday. Biles will join fellow American and all-around gold winner Suni Lee on the apparatus.
We are so excited to confirm that you will see two U.S. athletes in the balance beam final tomorrow – Suni Lee AND Simone Biles!! Can’t wait to watch you both!
— USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) August 2, 2021
MORE: Simone Biles’ Olympics timeline
Biles hadn’t participated in any event since withdrawing from the team final after one vault. She confirmed that she was dealing with the “twisties”, a mental block that prevents gymnasts from knowing where they are when flipping through the air. That caused her to withdraw from the all-around final as well as three individual event finals — the vault, uneven bars and floor exercises.
“It’s honestly petrifying doing a skill and but not having your mind & body in sync,” Biles wrote on Instagram about her battle with the twisties. “10/10 do not recommend.”
She added: “It’s the craziest feeling ever. Not having an inch of control over your body.”
Despite those struggles, she’ll return to the beam in hopes of winning another Olympic medal.
Biles already earned a silver medal after the United States finished second place in the women’s team competition. If she can medal on the balance beam, that will mark the seventh Olympic medal of her career. That would tie her with Shannon Miller for the most by an American female gymnast during a career.
Biles finished seventh in qualifying for the beam with a mark of 14.066. She was less than 0.3 points from the second-highest qualifier, China’s Xijing Tang (14.333), and trailed top qualifier, China’s Chenchen Guan (14.933), by just under 0.9 points for the top spot.
Will Biles earn a top-three finish in this event? It’s not a guarantee, but she will at least have a chance to close her 2021 Olympics — and, quite likely, her Olympic career — with one final medal.