Simone Biles still undecided on 2028 LA Olympics participation

Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, said she has yet to decide whether she will take part in her home Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.

Biles won gold medals in the team, all-around and vault competitions at the 2024 Games to complete a triumphant comeback three years after withdrawing from events at the Tokyo Olympics but said Paris took a heavy toll on her.

“I have accomplished so much in my sport. For me to come back, I would really need to be thrilled by it,” Biles, who has won seven Olympic golds in total, told French sports daily L'Equipe on Tuesday.

“You're going to tell me that the perspective of the Games in Los Angeles is fascinating. And I will be there, whether on the apparatus or in the stands, I still haven't decided.

“2028 seems so far away. And my body ages. I felt it in Paris. At the end of the competition, I went back to the village, I took the elevator and my body literally collapsed — I got sick for 10 days...

“So, to be honest, I don't know. We'll see,” the 28-year-old added.

On Monday, Biles was named the Sportswoman of the Year, while Swedish pole-vaulter Mondo Duplantis captured the men's honour at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid.

Biles, who won gold medals in the team, all-around and vault competitions, as well as a silver on the floor exercise at the 2024 Paris Games to complete a triumphant comeback three years after withdrawing from events at the Tokyo Olympics, won the Laureus award for the fourth time.

That equalled the record held by tennis great and US compatriot Serena Williams.

“I won this award for the first time in 2017 and Laureus has been a part of my story since then,” Biles said after the ceremony.

“There might be a little girl watching someone like me on television and deciding she can do it, too.”

Last year's winner, Novak Djokovic, handed Duplantis his first Laureus award after he was nominated in each of the last three years, becoming only the second track-and-field athlete to win it after Usain Bolt.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest pole vaulters of all time, Duplantis won a second straight Olympic gold medal in Paris, breaking his own world record for the ninth time, before shattering it once again in the Silesia Diamond League meeting the next month.

Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade won the Comeback of the Year award after completing her inspirational return from career-threatening injuries at the Paris Games to win the gold medal in the floor competition.

Teenage soccer sensation Lamine Yamal, who helped Spain win the European Championship last year, won the Breakthrough of the Year, the sixth footballer to win that award.

The Laureus World Sports Awards nominees are selected by the global media, while the winners are determined by the 69 members of the Laureus World Sports Academy. The awards have been presented annually since 2000.

Laureus Awards winners

• World Sportswoman of the Year: Simone Biles
• World Sportsman of the Year: Mondo Duplantis
• World Team of the Year: Real Madrid
• World Breakthrough of the Year: Lamine Yamal
• World Comeback of the Year: Rebeca Andrade
• World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability: Jiang Yuyan
• World Action Sportsperson of the Year: Tom Pidcock
• Laureus Sport for Good: Kick4Life
• Laureus Sporting Icon: Rafael Nadal
• Laureus Lifetime Achievement: Kelly Slater

Reuters