Armour: Biles finds winning mix with big skills, small ego

ARLINGTON, Texas — It's not the high-flying tumbling passes, the soaring vaults or the aerial acrobatics on balance beam that pose the biggest challenge for Simone Biles.

With two world titles already to her name and the Rio Olympics still more than a year away, staying grounded is the real trick.

"As much as you say, `I'm not thinking about it, the Olympics aren't in my mind at all,' that just can't be true," said Nastia Liukin, who qualifies as something of an expert, having won gymnastics' biggest prize, the Olympic all-around title, in Beijing after four years of hype.

"That was the first thing you thought of every morning, and it was the last thing you thought of going to sleep," she said. "Because that's your purpose, your career.

"… It's easy to let it get to you," Liukin added. "It's easy to be like, `Oh yeah, I'm the best in the world and I'm going to go to the Olympics and I'm going to win the Olympics.' It's hard to maintain your confidence while at the same time staying sane and not letting that get into your mind."

Biles is the overwhelming favorite to win Saturday's American Cup, the first major meet of the season and the unofficial kickoff of the Road to Rio. She has won every competition she's entered since August 2013, a stretch that includes two U.S. championships and the two world titles.

She also led the U.S. women to the team gold at last year's worlds, and claimed individual titles on balance beam and floor exercise. After only two trips to worlds, she's already tied for second-most medals by a U.S. woman.

She pairs explosive power with surprising grace, making tricks that are ridiculously hard look effortless. And with a bright smile and knack for performing that could teach most actors a thing or two, Biles is the most dynamic gymnast the sport has seen in years, perhaps decades.

The scariest thing? She hasn't come close to reaching her potential.

"I can't even say. Every day she can surprise me," said Aimee Boorman, Biles' longtime coach.

But gymnastics has never been kind to its favorites, reducing them to also-rans with injuries or humbling them with the sudden emergence of an up-and-comer.

Only four reigning world champions have won Olympic gold, and the last to do it was Lilia Podkopayeva back in 1996 — the year before Biles was born. In defending her world title last year, Biles became only the sixth woman to repeat as champion, and the first in more than a decade.

"What impresses me most is how she's able to keep it cool and stay on top year after year and not let it affect her," Liukin said. "She's still the same Simone that I met two or three or four years ago. Nothing has changed —- except all the gold medals that she has in her room at home."

And that humbleness has as much to do with her success as her monster tricks.

"You win two world championships, sometimes your nose goes too high. You think you're unbeatable," said Martha Karolyi, the U.S. women's national team coordinator. "You have to work and you have to have the same discipline as you have before.

"I really can't complain about that at all with Simone."

Much of the credit goes to Biles' parents, Nellie and Ronald. They treat her like any other 17-year-old, be it keeping a close eye on where she's going and who she's going with or requiring her to do chores same as their other children.

Some of the credit goes to Boorman, who treats Biles like a daughter first and a gymnast second.

But mostly it's a credit to Biles herself, who has remained wonderfully unaffected despite every opportunity not to be.

Just this week, she was FaceTiming with friends when they referred to her as "Simone Biles, two-time world champion," as if she was some oversized star in another orbit.

"I said, `Come on guys, I'm still Simone. Nothing has changed,'" Biles said.

It inevitably will as Rio approaches, however. Whether it's the way she sees herself or the title by which people identify her will be up to her.