Simone Biles understands the constant speculation about whether she has one more run at Olympic gold in her.
Mostly because the American gymnastics icon is still kind of wondering about it herself. So much so that there will be times when the question wakes the 29-year-old two-time Olympic all-around champion up in the middle of the night.
“I’m like 'Oh my gosh, I don’t know what the decision (is) I should make, but I don’t necessarily have to make it just yet,” Biles told The Associated Press. “But I feel like it’s kind of in the works which way I’m leaning towards.”
After trips to Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Paris, the lure of the opportunity to perform on the world stage at home in Los Angeles in the summer of 2028 is real. Olympic teammates Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey are already pointing toward LA. So is Katelyn Ohashi, a former college star at UCLA who returned to elite competition in July following a staggering 13-year break from the sport's top level.
“I know (athletes) are going a lot longer, and I’m just like, what the hell? It’s going to be like a big reunion if I did,” Biles said. “It would be so much fun. But I still have to weigh the options.”
And the risks. Biles will be 31 by the time the flame is lit at the opening ceremony in the LA Coliseum and Sofi Stadium in July 2028. The sacrifices of trying to make a fourth Olympic team would be far different than what she faced in Brazil a decade ago.
Biles and her husband, Indianapolis Colts safety Jonathan Owens, would like to have a family at some point. The potential impact of training on her reproductive health is a factor. So is the likelihood that returning to competition would mean she and Owens could be separated for significant stretches.
“I am getting to the age of 30 where we start to talk about, 'What does your reproduction cycle ... what’s going on in there? What does that look like? How healthy is it? And so I think these are major things that are on the table at my age that I have to take in consideration and weigh those options and what that looks like and when we want to start a family."
Still, the FOMO (fear of missing out) when it comes to LA is only too real.
“Like a home Olympic Games, like, how could you not?” she said. “It’s absolutely incredible.”
Biles has spent the last two years since her history-making performance in Paris — when she became the third woman ever to win multiple all-around golds — taking a break and leaning into the trappings that come with being one of the most recognizable faces of the U.S. Olympic movement.
The athlete who brought the topic of mental health kicking and screaming into the white-hot Olympic spotlight when she removed herself from several competitions at the Tokyo Games in 2021 while dealing with a mental block dubbed “the twisties” also remains passionate about various causes, including foster care and ADHD.
Among the latest is participating in the “Skin to Believe In” campaign, aimed at getting the roughly 36 million Americans living with inflammatory skin conditions to talk with their health care provider about long-term, steroid-free, topical treatment options for their chronic skin diseases.
Biles was diagnosed with seborrheic dermatitis on her face and scalp and eczema on her arms. The issue with her scalp became so problematic that she would scratch until she bled. She spent a long time trying to identify the cause. A relentless traveler, she wondered if it was triggered by certain environments or something internal like stress.
She now uses a steroid-free foam and cream, which not only has helped immensely but also allows her to keep her options open if she ultimately decides to give it one more shot.
There's a part of her that thinks it's doable. Biles found herself in the gym with her sister Adria recently and decided to try a double layout. You know, for fun.
“I’m like, ‘If I get lost, like, it’s over,’” Biles said. “And then I did it. And of course I was like, what the hell? That wasn’t that bad. Like, I wasn’t as scared as I thought I was going to be. And that scared me more with the decision.”
Biles joked there is one segment of the population that would be just fine if her sabbatical turned into an official retirement: others in the mix to make a potentially loaded U.S. team that will be heavy gold-medal favorites when they take the floor at the Staples Center in July 2028.
She was texting with former World Champions Centre and world championship teammate Joscelyn Roberson — now competing at Georgia after reuniting with Cecile and Laurent Landi, who served as Biles' coaches from 2017-24 — when Roberson made a suggestion.
“She’s trying to remind me, like, ‘Hey babes, you’re good. Remember, you don’t have to come back. Stay at your house and stay with your husband,'" Biles said with a laugh, later adding, “I know some of the girls would be like, ‘Oh no, Simone’s coming back.'”
And Biles very well just might, though she's well aware of the difficulty of the task she would face, physically, mentally and emotionally. She's talked to skier Lindsey Vonn — who made her own Olympic comeback this year at 41 — about the unique push/pull of the Games. Biles insists she's at peace if she never pulls on a leotard and salutes the judges again.
“I’ve experienced so much and I’d done so much, so it’s like, I also have to be doing it for the right reasons,” she said. “I feel really, really comfortable with what I've done in the sport. So I just have to sit down and be like ‘Why? Why am I doing it?’ Because there has to be a good reason.”
See AP’s full sports coverage here
FILE - Simone Biles, of the United States, celebrates after winning the gold medal at the medal ceremony during the women's artistic gymnastics individual vault finals at Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, on Aug. 3, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)
MADRID (AP) — Spain’s government on Tuesday presented measures to address the country's housing crisis that has drawn tens of thousands of people to the streets in recent days after the eviction of an 87-year-old woman last week. It remains to be seen if they go far enough to appease protesters.
The coalition led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists announced the measures after four days of intense protests centered around an encampment in Puerta del Sol, Madrid's most iconic plaza. They were sparked by the eviction of María del Carmen Abascal, who was carried out on a stretcher from the apartment where she had lived for seven decades and has become widely known as simply “Maricarmen.”
The protests have yielded results for Abascal, whose lawyer Beatriz Duro said she had accepted a deal with the company that owns her apartment in the upscale Retiro neighborhood to return home. Abascal, who has been in a hospital since she was removed from her apartment, will return as soon as she is discharged, Duro said. The agreement limits her rent to 30% of her income, meaning she would not pay more than the 500 euros ($570) per month she paid previously.
The government's main decree extends protection against evictions for vulnerable Spaniards until 2030, regulates room rentals, imposes a new tax on seasonal rentals and bans “speculative real estate purchases by vulture funds” until 2028, Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez told reporters at the presidential palace. It remains unclear how such funds are classified or how large the tax will be, as the decree's full text has yet to be released.
It also offers tax breaks to landlords who rent to low-income tenants, offers interest-free loans to families buying their first home, and protects public housing and promotes its construction, Rodríguez added.
“This has been thanks to the citizen movement. To Maricarmen. To the thousands of people in the streets,” Spain's Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz wrote on social media.
Rising costs and a housing shortage are pricing many Spaniards out of the housing market, despite strong economic growth in Europe’s fourth-largest economy. The protesters have been demanding stronger protections for tenants, measures to combat fraud and a ban on evictions when alternative housing is unavailable.
Parliament has 30 days to ratify the measures, and the government wants to expedite the process and has called an extraordinary plenary session on housing for Friday. The government's coalition holds 152 of the chamber’s 350 seats, so it needs the support of smaller parties across the political spectrum to pass bills. Lack of parliamentary support in late July prevented the approval of similar measures.
The Madrid Tenants’ Union, the organizer of the protest, said it would remain cautious until it could review “the fine print” of the decree.
“The streets, this encampment and all the others currently across the country are engaging in a historic standoff with the government to push it to advance the right to housing through measures that had not been considered. And this continues,” said Alicia del Río, the union’s spokesperson.
The activists, planning more protests for the weekend, will decide later today whether to dismantle the encampment. The regional government, led by the conservative People’s Party, has asked the government delegate to clear the iconic square within 48 hours before taking the matter to court. The protesters have remained peaceful.
Smaller encampments have sprung up in other cities, from Seville and Málaga in the south to Santiago de Compostela in the north and Palma de Mallorca in the tourist-friendly Balearic Islands, drawing international attention to a long-running issue.
Asked about the situation on Monday, Pope Leo XIV said it underscored the need for political leaders to find solutions to the housing crisis affecting many communities.
“Maybe we have to insist that political leaders, authorities find a solution to this, because it’s obviously increasing and oftentimes we only react in the moment of an emergency,” he said, after admitting that he was not familiar with the case. “But we have to try to see what the systemic cause of the problem is and how to help.”
Spain has had a housing law in place since 2023 that regulates rents and protects tenants, as well as allowing rent caps in high-demand areas at the request of local governments.
Spanish media reported that Abascal’s father first rented the property in 1956 and she continued as the tenant after her parents died, during which time there was a rent cap. The building changed ownership in 2018, and Abascal was offered the opportunity to buy the apartment but could not afford it, according to the Madrid Tenants’ Union, which organized Saturday’s protest.
Urbagestión, an investment fund that later bought the unit, raised her monthly rent from 500 euros to 2,650 euros. It subsequently lowered the rent to 1,650 euros, which Abascal still could not afford on her pension, the union said.
The company didn't respond to emailed and phone requests for comment from The Associated Press.
Associated Press journalists Nicole Winfield in Rome and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona contributed.
Protesters camp during a protest at Sol Square following the eviction last Wednesday of 87-year-old Maricarmen as they demand stronger laws to protect renters in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Tourists take pictures of protesters camping during a protest at Sol Square following the eviction last Wednesday of 87-year-old Maricarmen as they demand stronger laws to protect renters in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Demonstrators camp during a protest at Sol Square following the eviction last Wednesday of 87-year-old Maricarmen as they demand stronger laws to protect renters in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Tourists gather in front of protesters camping during a protest at Sol Square following the eviction last Wednesday of 87-year-old Maricarmen as they demand stronger laws to protect renters in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Demonstrators camp during a protest at Sol Square following the eviction last Wednesday of 87-year-old Maricarmen as they demand stronger laws to protect renters in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
