Paris Olympics: In a different time, Simone Biles would have been an elite college gymnast at UCLA, too

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PARIS — The cell phone of Valorie Kondos Field, or “Miss Val” as the legendary former UCLA gymnastics coach is known, lit up with a familiar name.

“Simone Biles.”

This was August 4, 2014. Biles was just 17, a high school kid from Spring, Texas. This was long before she became an international icon and the United States’ most decorated gymnast, who will seek her 10th Olympic medal, and seventh gold, Saturday when she enters the individual vault competition here.

Biles was, however, already the reigning all-around world champion who was showing the ferocious ability and work ethic to push the possibilities of gymnastics.

So to Miss Val, who coached UCLA for 28 years and won seven national titles — and just about every other NCAA coach in the country — Biles represented something else.

The most coveted college gymnastics recruit … ever.

Naturally Val quickly answered the phone and soon heard one of her favorite sentences.

“I want to sign with UCLA,” Simone said.

Miss Val quickly shared the news with her husband, Bobby, a longtime UCLA assistant football coach.

“I said, ‘We just got the ‘G.O.A.T.’ We just got the greatest recruit of all time,’” Kondos Field said.

Of course, it wasn’t to be. This was before the NCAA began allowing athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness. So when Biles won another world championship in 2015 and was the significant favorite to dominate the 2016 Olympics in Rio, she was approached with millions in endorsement contracts from Nike, Proctor & Gamble and Hershey’s.

The money was massive. She turned pro.

“It was a tough decision,” Biles said, “because I loved UCLA so much.”

Which left Miss Val with her ultimate recruiting tail of woe — the one who got away.

“It certainly would have been great,” Kondos Field said with a laugh. “We knew she was going to go pro. There was no way. There was just no way she couldn’t. … We knew even then that she was the best of all time.”

There isn’t any debate any longer. On Thursday, Biles became just the third woman to ever win two all-around Olympic gold medals and the first since 1968, when it was a much different sport. She is the first to do it in non-consecutive Olympics — if not for mentally not being able to compete in Tokyo 2021 she likely would have been the only woman to win three all-around titles.

She hasn’t lost an all-around competition in over a decade and is expected to win three more medals here as the individual event finals begin, including gold in vault and floor.

It’s why the entire idea of Simone Biles as a college gymnast sort of warps the mind.

Yet, if the rules now were the rules then, Biles said she would have almost assuredly gone to UCLA. After all, Sunisa Lee spent two seasons at Auburn following her 2021 Olympic all-around gold. Current Team USA teammates Jordan Chiles (UCLA) and Jade Carey (Oregon State) both competed in the NCAA after the Tokyo Games.

Sixteen-year-old Hezly Rivera is, as you might expect, considered the top recruit in her class.

It’s part of the melding of college gymnastics and elite international gymnastics, which while being different sports with different scoring systems, have found ways to be mutually beneficial to each other.

“College gymnastics can make you a better competitor,” said Jordyn Wieber, a 2012 gold medalist and now head coach at the University of Arkansas who attended UCLA, but due to taking business and endorsement opportunities had to serve as a team manager under Miss Val.

It’s one reason why Lee (age 21) Chiles (23) and Carey (24) were able to return to the Olympics, joining the 27-year-old Biles to make this the oldest Team USA ever.

“In college, you compete every single week, 14-16 times over the season,” Wieber said. “In elite gymnastics, you might get up to compete 4-6 times a year.”

The gymnastics at the Olympics uses a scoring system that equally values the difficulty of a routine and the execution of a routine. It favors Biles-type spectacular athleticism. College gymnastics is more about executing perfectly.

“There are easier routines, but you have to be competitively sharp,” Wieber said.

Being great at one does not equate to being great at the other. Lee, for example, finished second in all-around at the 2022 NCAA Championships, and other Olympic gymnasts have merely been good, not great.

As for Biles, Miss Val had no doubts. No, she wouldn’t be attempting the “Biles II” — a double back flip in pike position that she and only she can hit — on an NCAA vault, but the former UCLA coach is certain that the GOAT would have figured out whatever scoring system was put in front of her.

“She would have won a lot of national championships,” Miss Val said with a laugh.

If only.