Published June 28, 2021 on Defector
ST. LOUIS — Last week I was scrolling Instagram when I saw Simone Biles post a photo sitting in front of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, getting ready for the Olympic Trials. I’d had no idea which city was hosting the trials before that, but I nearly dropped my phone because St. Louis is so close! I can drive there!
I’ve been a casual gymnastics fan for my entire life, my first major gymnastics memories were Carly Patterson and Svetlana Khorkina battling at the Athens Olympics. I tune in for Nationals every year and get sucked in deep every Olympic cycle, but I had never actually seen live competitive gymnastics. Attending an Olympic trials just never felt like a realistic thing. I’ve covered five Super Bowls, but writing about Olympic Trials gymnastics? That felt like a whole other echelon of sports achievement. I don’t usually get nervous when I interview NFL players or coaches, but when I had a chance to interview Aly Raisman for SI Kids, in an extremely low-stakes, five-minute Q&A just a week or so after the Rio Olympics, I was so giddy that I got a red blotchy rash all over my neck.
So when I realized that Biles would be competing just 300 miles from me, and tickets were still available—I had to make the pilgrimage.