If you've developed the habit of napping during the past year, you’re in good company—Simone Biles also needs to get her daily catnap in. 

Of course, most of us aren’t elite athletes, enduring two rigorous workouts a day, let alone gearing up for our second Olympics. Biles’s first workout begins at 7 am and ends three and a half hours later, when she eats, showers, and sleeps. She trains again from 2 pm to 5. 

While several outstanding athletes were listed on the three-day Tokyo 2020 Team USA Media Summit, Biles wasn’t initially listed. So it was a delightful surprise when we learned the four-time Olympic gold medalist was added to the Tokyo press conference at the last minute. 

Having just finished her second workout of the day and looking fabulous and refreshed, Biles chatted with the media about her current and future plans. 

The conference covered many topics, including Biles’s life during the pandemic lockdown, her latest double-piked upgrade, and the possibility of competing after Tokyo. 

After the Tokyo Olympics were postponed last year, Biles took some time off, staying in touch with her coaches and teammates over Zoom, where they conditioned together. She returned to training seven weeks later.

Biles admits every time she sees “Tokyo Olympics” trending, her heart drops a little, not knowing what the subject is going to be. However, she’s confident that organizers are doing what they can to keep the virus under control, even if that meant deciding to ban spectators from outside Japan. 

Not having her family watching her compete will be difficult. “I’ve never competed without my family [in the stands], so it was “really sad for them to hear the news, but at the end of the day, we need to do what’s right in protecting ourselves and Tokyo’s citizens, so I fully understand and agree with their citizens.” 

Biles is buoyed to know her family will be having a watch party. “They'll be there in spirit, but it'll be really hard. I need to figure out how my mom can get a credential as media or something!"

A couple of months ago, we got a glimpse of Simone training the Yurchenko double pike, a vault no woman has attempted in competition. 

Biles said she will 'definitely debut' the Yurchenko double pike before Tokyo. Debuting it before Tokyo is critical to see how she reacts to it in competition, giving her the arena and competition experience before Tokyo.

Anytime one talks about a challenging routine or skill, the conversation inevitably turns to the one-touch warm-up, a typical warm-up that’s included in most event finals. 

However, in event finals at the Olympics, there is no one-touch warm-up. Biles notes the lack of the warm-up in the vault final, saying competing is dangerous given the difficulty every gymnast is competing. “I probably wouldn't do [the Yurchenko double pike] in an event final unless I was later in the lineup so I could warm it up in the back gym," Biles said. 

She said her competition schedule ahead of Tokyo is to do the all-around at US Classics and then again at US Championships and Olympic Trials before Tokyo. Biles was scheduled to do the Tokyo World Cup, which got canceled. If she had competed at the World Cup, Biles would have planned on skipping U.S. Classics. 

With the possibility of seeing the Yurchenko double pike at one of her three upcoming all-around appearances, it’s hard to believe Biles could add more news that could top that.

That said, it was even more exciting to hear Biles hint at the possibility of competing in Paris in 2024. Her coaches Cecil and Laurent Landi “are from Paris, so they've kind of guilted me into at least being a specialist. The main goal is 2021, the tour, and then we'll have to see."

As one Twitter account noted: 

Okay everyone stay!! calm!!! https://t.co/oTJVNMUztc

— jazzi (@triplememmel) April 7, 2021

With that refreshing news, it might be time to brush up on your high school French. Bonjour.