Follow our Olympic coverage in the lead-up to the Paris Games.
HARTFORD, Conn. — Security opened the doors to the XL Center in downtown Hartford at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. By 5:40, the screams started, the sort of largely female, high-pitched pre-teen squeals that you might expect to hear on the Eras Tour. They ebbed and flowed for 90 minutes of warmups, peaking into a crescendo every time Simone Biles did … something.
The thing, of course, is Biles never does just something. She does some … thing, moves that no one else in her sport dare consider let alone try, moves that defy what should be the human elements of gravity. At the Core Hydration Classic here, the last three all-around Olympic champions assembled for the first time in history — Sunisa Lee, the 2020 winner back from a debilitating kidney disease; Biles, the 2016 winner; and Gabby Douglas, the wizened 28-year-old trying to return to the Olympics 12 years after winning gold. They were joined by two other Olympians, Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles; two-time world championships team member Shilese Jones and a host of NCAA champions, a field that speaks to the depth of this U.S. team’s potential.
Each earned more than their share of attention, appreciation and adulation.
None matched the noise that greeted Biles. At…
