The VIPs have hooked themselves to the US star’s cultural celebrity, desperate to bathe in her reflected glory
If Simone Biles has taught us anything over the last decade, it is to reframe the way we think and talk about star athletes, to refuse the instinctive deification that is really also a form of dehumanisation.If Simone Biles has taught us anything over the last decade, it is to reframe the way we think and talk about star athletes, to refuse the instinctive deification that is really also a form of dehumanisation.he loge boxes and the VIP seats lie empty for most of the morning.
We have Tom Cruise and Snoop Dogg. We have Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. We have John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, Greta Gerwig and Jessica Chastain, the Jonas Brothers, the now-ubiquitous Anna Wintour, whose main leisure activity these days seems to be sitting in the front row of blue-chip sporting events with an austere expression, like a woman being dragged to watch her nephew’s nativity play.
Two storeys below, in the pit of the Bercy Arena, the greatest gymnast in history is deep in discussion. Coaches and medical staff are pointing at her left calf and ankle, which are thick with strapping. A camera operator hovers over her like a raven. We hear little snatches of conversation. She says: “like a fucking tear”. And then: “I could literally feel it, though.” And then: “It hurts so bad to push off.” In between rotations she limps and sits, grimaces and smiles.
The circus will carry on screaming around her. Her face will continue to sell premium hospitality packages the world over. Celebrities will swan in and swan out, gawping and leering, desperate to bathe in her reflected glory, hooking themselves to her fleeting cultural capital like junkies. But she alone knows what it took to get here, she alone knows what it means to be here, and even in the grand, grotesque, billion-dollar content fayre of big sport, she alone will define her power.
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