Simone Biles Wonders ‘Can’t I Live?’ When Asked About 2028 Olympics: ‘In the Gym, I Am Old’

Simone Biles still isn’t ready to give an answer about whether or not she’ll return to compete for the 2028 Olympics. Jimmy Fallon asked her the dreaded question during her appearance on his talk show on Wednesday, September 3.

“Everybody wants to know this question,” Simone, 27, admitted. “I’m like, ‘Can’t I live?’” She also pointed out that she’s “getting older” in the world of gymnastics. “Twenty-seven is a little bit old for a gymnast,” the professional athlete admitted, much to Jimmy’s shock.

“In real life, like, [I’m] aging like fine wine,” Simone said. “But for a gymnast, old. Outside of the gym? Oh yeah, I’m young. Tequila, no hangover. But in the gym, I am old.”

She then proposed a solution that might take some of the pressure off her aging body. “Maybe if we do, like, tag?” she propositioned. “If we could do tag beam, vault, floor, bars. Like, tag, somebody else?”

Simone won three gold medals and one silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, which concluded in August. She previously expressed that she isn’t a fan of people asking about her plans for the future so soon after such a milestone moment.

“you guys really gotta stop asking athletes what’s next after they win a medal at the Olympics,” she wrote on X after securing a gold medal for vault. “let us soak up the moment we’ve worked our whole lives for.”

However, before taking to social media with that message, she told a reporter, “ Never say never ,” when asked about whether she’d be in Los Angeles for the 2028 Games. “The next Olympics is at home. So, you just never know,” she added. “But I am getting really old.”

Paris was Simone’s third Olympic Games. She previously won four gold medals and a bronze medal at the 2016 Games, as well as a silver and bronze in Tokyo. However, her appearance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was far from what she expected, as she had to drop out of several events after experiencing a mental block called the “twisties.”

Despite her hesitation to confirm her future plans, Simone is already back to putting in the work. On August 24, less than two weeks after returning home from Paris, she was back in the gym . “[First] day back,” she captioned an Instagram photo.

If Simone does make another comeback for the 2028 Olympics, she has already guaranteed that her Yurchenko double pike will not be making an appearance. Simone performed the extremely difficult vault move, which takes an extreme toll on her body and has never been done by another gymnast, in Paris. However, on Monday, September 2, she confirmed she was officially putting the skill to bed.

“rest in peace yurchenko double pike,” Simone wrote on Instagram. She also included a photo of herself sitting on a vault surrounded by white flowers, signifying that she was having a funeral for the move that was named after her.

The Ohio native’s 2024 Olympics journey was documented on part two of the Netflix series Simone Biles: Rising , which will air in October.