Simone Biles dominated Olympic qualifying. That sends a strong message.

Gymnastics champion Simone Biles put on a stellar performance at the Olympic trials this week, securing her the top score and a key spot on Team USA for the 2024 Games in Paris later this year.

Her floor routine and vault, in particular, received top marks and standing ovations from the audience.

It’s a significant win that follows Biles’ two-year hiatus from the sport after her early exit from the team event in Tokyo, when she cited the need to “focus on my mental health.” It’s also a testament to the work she’s done since that competition to strengthen her mental well-being and return to a grueling physical training regimen. At the trials, Biles used her win to highlight the immense pressure elite athletes face and the importance of being candid about those challenges.

“We’ve all been pretty open and honest about what we’re going through,” Biles, 27, said at a news conference after the meeting. “But we’re always going to prioritize mental health and it’s really nice that Tokyo has given us the opportunity to open up this stage for that discussion.”

Biles’ recent victory marks her third time competing in the Olympics and also makes her the oldest American gymnast to qualify for the Games since the 1950s. The fact that Biles is returning to competition once again is an accomplishment in itself. She will be among a small group of gymnasts to have competed in three consecutive Olympics. Her willingness to confront her mental health struggles also sends a compelling message, normalizing the decision to speak out and showing how athletes can become stronger for doing so.

Biles made her Olympic debut in Rio in 2016, where she won three individual gold medals and one team gold medal. She has since won countless other competitions, including the U.S. National Championships nine times. Biles is widely considered the greatest gymnast of all time due to the increased difficulty of the routines she performs and her ability to execute them. Her victories at the Olympics and numerous world championships also make her the most decorated gymnast of all time.

In 2021, Biles competed as a member of Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics. There, she experienced what is commonly known as “twisties,” a dangerous phenomenon that occurs when gymnasts lose track of their position in the air. Given the complexity and difficulty of gymnastics routines, twisties are extremely dangerous and can lead to serious injuries.

After experiencing “twisties” on vault, Biles opted to withdraw from several Olympic events, including the team event. Prior to that decision, she wrote in an Instagram post that she felt like she had “the weight of the world on my shoulders at times,” later describing those challenges as the accumulation of long-standing traumas that all came to a head.

“It’s like we’ve been compressing all this shit for so many years. It just happened. You can’t compress trauma any longer,” Biles said on the podcast this year. Call her daddy.

From Tokyo, Biles said she was “petrified” to get back into the gym and relearn some of the techniques she used to do. She described going to therapy as a major factor in helping her cope with and recover from the 2020 Olympics, and she also talked about taking medication to combat anxiety.

“I’m continuing to work on my body and mind, as I have done for the last year and a half, and it’s working,” Biles said on Call her daddy“I didn’t think therapy was going to work, and it does.” Biles now has a toolbox of techniques to combat stress during competitions, according to her coach Cecile Landi.

Biles made a strong return to this year’s Olympic trials, which are held over two days of competition, with each athlete practicing on all four gymnastics apparatus (bars, beam, floor and vault) over the two days. The Olympic selection committee then considers the athletes’ scores and other factors to determine who should make the team.

This year the decision was relatively simple: the committee chose the best performing athletes across the board, something it doesn’t always do because it also takes into account individual strengths on different devices.

Biles finished first with 117.225 points, five points ahead of the next competitor. She was followed by Olympic veterans Suni Lee at 111.675, Jordan Chiles at 111.425, Jade Carey at 111.350 and newcomer Hezly Rivera at 111.150. Those five make up the team heading to Paris, while Joscelyn Roberson and Leanne Wong will serve as alternates.

Biles earned her spot on the Olympic team thanks to two days of exceptional routines, including on floor and vault. On both apparatus, she has long been known for having the highest difficulty scores of any gymnast in competition, and that hasn’t changed upon her return.

Her floor routine, for example, included a mind-blowing move called Biles II, which involves three twists and two somersaults. And her vault, widely considered the most difficult in women’s gymnastics, included what’s called a double Yurchenko pike, something no other female gymnast has been able to do.

Since her experience in Tokyo, Biles has continued to stress the need to take care of one’s mental health and the need for professional athletes, who have long faced intense scrutiny and stress, to have outlets to talk about it.

“I think athletes are a little bit more in tune now and we’re trusting what our gut is telling us, and we’re just taking mental health a little bit more seriously,” Biles said at this week’s press briefing.

Elite athletes are under incredible pressure to perform, making them more prone to anxiety, depression and other mental health issues. Historically, talking about mental health has also been stigmatized and seen by some as a sign of weakness. Biles’ decision to speak out helps dispel some of that stigma and allows more people, including her teammates, to share their own concerns.

“Suni (Lee) came to me earlier and said, ‘I’m not doing well,’ so we had a check-in. We explained to her why she was doing it and reminded her that she can do it, she’s done it before, so let’s go ahead and do it,” Biles said at the press conference.

Lee also stressed the importance of her mental health and positivity as she recovers from kidney disease in order to compete again this year.

Biles also said she was putting less stock in outside judgment. In Tokyo, some viewers reacted negatively to Biles’ decision to withdraw from competition, and if athletes — including her — make similar decisions in Paris, it’s possible that it could draw the same reaction from some observers.

“I think it has to be for us, because it can’t be for anybody else, because that’s not why we’re doing it. We’re doing it for ourselves, for the love of the game and for the love of representing the United States,” Biles said at the press conference.