PARIS — The arena is mostly empty. The gymnastics competition has yet to begin. But Simone Biles has already delivered a stunning performance.

During a quiet training session here Thursday, the U.S. star launched her body off the vault, reaching a height no other woman can match, then flipped twice in a pike position. It’s the hardest vault in women’s gymnastics, and Biles planted her feet into the mat without taking even a tiny step.

When describing that vault, Coach Cecile Landi said: “Perfect. We would take this one in a heartbeat.”

This vault lasted just a few seconds of one practice before Sunday’s qualifying round, but soon each of Biles’s flights will highlight the competition. When she executes one of these wildly difficult elements, it’s a reminder of her dominance — and of why massive expectations follow her everywhere.

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In Paris, the spotlight will be perhaps brighter than ever. Biles has been consistently excellent over the past two seasons, but the last time she performed on the Olympic stage, a disorienting mental block derailed her performances, and she withdrew from several events.

Three years later, she’s back at the Games, and after the U.S. team finished a strong training session, Landi said, “We’re all breathing a little bit better right now.” All of the U.S. gymnasts declined interviews after Thursday’s practice.

This team of five American women includes four gymnasts who competed at the Tokyo Games. As soon as they earned spots on this year’s team, they began referring to these Games as their “redemption tour.” The United States wound up with a silver in the team final in 2021, losing to the Russian Olympic Committee.

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“Honestly, we’ve been talking about it for the past three years — all of us,” Jade Carey said after the Olympic trials. “Not a single one of us had the whole experience that we wanted.”

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Biles’s struggle was the most severe: In the team final, she felt lost in the air during her vault and didn’t complete her intended number of twists. She cited a dangerous mental block, known in gymnastics as “the twisties,” that emerged amid the pressure she faced during those Games. Biles withdrew from the team final after the first rotation, then opted out of the all-around vault, bars and floor finals. She returned for beam, changed her dismount to one that didn’t require twisting and earned a bronze medal.

Carey finally gets to fully be part of the U.S. team. She earned an individual berth in Tokyo and didn’t contribute to the team score. She had to wear a different leotard during the training session and the qualifying round — a visible reminder of how her role differed from the others. Carey won the floor gold medal but tripped as she approached the springboard in the vault final. She had entered as a medal contender but had to bail out of the skill and finished in last place.

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Jordan Chiles, who trains alongside Biles, headed into the last Olympics with consistency as her strength. But in Tokyo, she struggled on bars and beam in the qualifying round, then fell on floor in the team final. She didn’t advance to any individual finals.

While Sunisa Lee won the coveted all-around gold three years ago, she was disappointed with a bronze on bars, her signature event. In Paris, Lee said, she wants to win gold on beam and with the team. She admitted that on bars, she just wants a medal, citing how strong Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour has been on that apparatus. China’s Qiu Qiyuan, the reigning world champion, also is excellent. Lee dealt with kidney-related health issues last year, but she has steadily progressed and upped the difficulty of her routines.

To ease the stress of competition, Biles, 27, reminds the group that “our normal is enough,” Carey said.

The fans who watch gymnastics just every four years last saw Biles struggling in Tokyo. They watched her vault go awry and how she exited the arena, returning only to cheer on her teammates. They didn’t see her at national-level competitions over the past two years as she held steady through complex routines. They didn’t see her at the world championships last fall, when she won four gold medals and one silver. Biles said recently that she knows her critics will continue to ask: “Oh, my gosh, are you going to quit again?”

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“Everybody probably looks at the team as: ‘Okay, they went to Tokyo, and this, this and this happened. And what are they going to do here in Paris?’” Biles said after the Olympic trials. “But for us, I know we’re stronger than what we showed in Tokyo.”

Carey could medal on vault and floor. Lee is a contender on bars and beam. Chiles could challenge Carey for a spot in the floor final or Lee for a chance to compete for an all-around medal. Similar to three years ago, Biles has the potential to win five gold medals — in the team and all-around competitions, as well as on vault, beam and floor.

All four of the veterans can lean on their experience; in addition to Biles’s 37 world and Olympic medals, the other three athletes have combined to earn 18. Hezly Rivera is the lone newcomer, and she is “a breath of fresh air,” Landi said, referencing the 16-year-old’s wide-eyed enjoyment of the Olympic experience. Nobody will endure more pressure than Biles, but it helps that she’s surrounded by gymnasts with whom she has competed for years and ones who share the same objective: to accomplish what they did not in Tokyo.

“We all have more to give,” Biles said. “And our Tokyo performances weren’t the best. We weren’t under the best circumstances, either. But I feel like we have a lot of weight on our shoulders to go out there and prove that we’re better athletes.”

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