Simone Biles has stayed away from gymnastics for 662 days since winning three gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. So what has she been doing? Well, according to Daniel Arribas of El País, Biles has been focusing on her personal life with her husband, Jonathan Owens, and exploring interests beyond gymnastics. Earlier, she hadn’t given a definite answer about her future regarding the LA 28 Olympics, saying, “We’re going to have to make these decisions pretty quickly.” But now she has an answer.

“I’d say we’re still at fifty percent. Although I’d also like to say something: I feel we should admire athletes while they’re active, competing. I’ve already been to three Olympic Games and I feel fulfilled. It’s crazy to see how people always want more and more from you. In the end, the decision will always be mine,” Biles told El País on May 29.

Biles is not training full-time, and there is no confirmed return to competition. She has not officially stepped away from the sport either. It leaves her future hanging in the balance between retirement and a comeback, shaped by time and how she feels in the next phase of her life. Interestingly, Biles has already achieved everything in sports.

She owns 11 Olympic medals, including 7 gold, along with 30 World Championship medals, the highest ever in the sport. With a record like that, the question around LA 2028 is less about achievement and more about desire. But there are a few big factors that could shape her decision. The first is the physical demand. After Paris 2024, she spoke about how exhausting recovery felt on her body.

Gymnastics exerts intense pressure on joints and muscles, and by 2028, she would be around 31, an age when very few female gymnasts are still competing at the top level. The second is the long preparation cycle. A return is not a quick process. It means years of strict training, daily repetition, and constant strain to reach Olympic level again.

The third is mental balance. Biles has been open about how much the pressure affected her during the past Olympics, especially Tokyo. Today, she values a calmer routine, time away from the competition, and a more balanced life outside gymnastics. However, she has not closed the door completely.

“I think the Olympics at home are motivation enough, but at the same time I feel like our bodies are a bit like an hourglass that keeps running out. I’m 29 now, and although longevity has advanced by leaps and bounds in elite sports, it would be a huge sacrifice to try to be in Los Angeles. We’ll see,” she said.

Although Biles is not in active competition training, she doesn’t think that it’s the end: “I’m still in good enough shape to do whatever I want.” Her future depends entirely on how she feels in the years ahead. But after being away from gymnastics for almost two years, can she still return and perform at her very best?

Simone Biles’ Paris struggles raise big questions over her LA 2028 comeback

Biles competed in the Paris Olympics despite a calf injury and battled pain during the early rounds. Despite that, she completed all four events for Team USA. After the Games, she expressed how the injury affected her, saying, “I feel like my body is slowly starting to shut down, like, it’s ready to be done.”

Biles stood on the podium, smiling, after her last event, hiding the pain she was going through. When she went back to the Olympic Village, she could not walk properly, needed elevators as she felt exhausted, and spent days feeling sick. That stretch gave her a better understanding of the effects of competitive gymnastics on the body.

Since then, Biles has stayed away from structured training. She has been open about needing distance from the sport, saying, “I actually hate exercise. I feel like after doing it for so long, I deserve a break. And I’m giving myself that privilege.” She has also admitted, “I haven’t even watched gymnastics,” which shows how far removed she is from daily training life.

That leads us to a simple but difficult question. After staying away from a sport like gymnastics for this long, is it still possible to come back at the highest level? In sports like gymnastics, long breaks can change everything. It is not just about fitness but also about timing, muscle memory, and the ability to handle pressure again.

Even Biles admitted, “I haven’t even watched gymnastics.” Still, her past shows that a return is not impossible. She had stepped away after the Tokyo Olympics because of twisties and returned to training around September 2023 to rebuild. She might do the same for the LA 28 Olympics.