The day before she competed in Doha in 2018, Simone Biles was lying in an emergency room in severe pain. Less than 24 hours later, she was back in the arena at the 2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and once again showed the world why she was different.

Biles competed while dealing with a kidney stone and still delivered one of the most dominant performances of the tournament. She won the all-around qualification standings with a huge score of 60.965, well ahead of the rest of the field.

Following the event Biles said doctors feared she had appendicitis after experiencing pain on the right side of her body.

“We had to go to the ER because I've been having stomach pains like on my right side for two days, and then we started to think it was my appendix,” Biles said as reported by Bleacher Report. “We just wanted to go as a precaution, and then they found a kidney stone.”

The pain continued through the competition, but Biles said adrenaline helped her handle it during the competition.

“It felt really good. The adrenaline definitely helped because even when I'm walking or doing some stretches, I'm in a bit of pain,” she said.

Even though she was clearly in physical discomfort, Biles looked nearly untouchable through the qualification round. Her routines had the same power, sharpness, and confidence that had already made her one of the biggest stars of gymnastics.

She excelled on all apparatus, particularly on vault, the event in which she won Olympic gold in 2016. By the end of the qualification round, Biles had qualified for the all-around final, the team final, and all four individual apparatus finals.

The event also proved a major milestone in her comeback journey. Biles had planned to step away after winning five medals at the Rio Olympics but returned to competition in 2018.

Doha quickly banished any doubts about her ability to dominate. Biles also said she’s been practicing upgraded routines that used to feel hard to hit consistently.

“We've been working on it for a while, and I never thought in a million years that I could upgrade from the changes,” she said. “During the Olympic year I sometimes had problems with it, and I was like, there's no way, but here we are.”

How Morgan Hurd Emerged as the Closest Challenger to Simone Biles

While Biles was the main attraction, fellow American Morgan Hurd also performed well in qualification.

The world all-around champion finished second with a score of 56.465 and helped USA lead the standings with 174.429 points. Japan was second with 162.180.

Despite the worry over Biles’ health going into the event, the American team looked untroubled throughout the competition. The Doha performance, years later, remains one of the clearest examples of Biles’ resilience.

It became a story of overcoming pain and still performing high-level gymnastics on one of the biggest stages.

Read more at the Gymnastics Digest!

Written by

Chitrak Mukherjee

Edited by

Kaamna Dwivedi