Fans might have already witnessed Simone Biles’ last dance.
Biles dominated the 2024 Olympics in Paris over the summer, winning three gold medals and one silver medal to become the most decorated U.S. gymnast in Olympic history.
But fans hoping to see her compete in what might be her final Olympics as the Games return to America in 2028 may be disappointed to learn that Biles isn’t set on making an appearance.
Speaking to Sports Illustrated after being named their "2024 Sportsperson of the Year," Biles said she believes returning to the Games after seeing so much success makes her "greedy."
"If you go back, you’ll be greedy. Those are the consequences. But that’s also your decision to decide," she said in the interview. "What sacrifices would be made if I go back now? When you’re younger, it’s like, prom, college. Now it’s like, starting a family, being away from my husband. What’s really worth it?"
Biles is married to Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens. The couple tied the knot in April 2023 and have since been pictured supporting one another at their respective events.
Owens signed a two-year contract with the Bears in March 2024 after spending one season with the Green Bay Packers. He was excused from the start of training camp this summer to support his wife as she went on to make history at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
As Biles moves into this next chapter in her life, she indicated to Sports Illustrated that returning to the Olympic stage in 2028 would be a longshot.
"I’ve accomplished so much, there’s almost nothing left to do, rather than to just be snobby and to try again and for what? I’m at a point in my career where I’m humble enough to know when to be done."
Team USA and gymnast Jordan Chiles didn't let the withdrawal of her Olympic bronze medal stop them from showing off her team gold on Tuesday.
In a New Year's Eve post to celebrate the medals that the US claimed at the Paris Olympics this year, the team included a photo of Chiles holding the gold medal that she and her American teammates won in the women's team event. Chiles was the only gymnast included in the collage.
Chiles re-posted the photo on her personal Instagram story later on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old gymnast is currently involved in an appeal against a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision that dropped her from third place in the event to fifth in the women's floor exercise final.
Romania's Ana Barbosu initially earned a higher score than Chiles after the American finished her routine. Then, after a US coach's request, judges reviewed the footage, changed the score and bumped Chiles up to third place, sparking the initial controversy and fierce backlash from Romanians.
The decision to give the medal to Chiles instead resulted in the first All-Black podium in the history of Olympic gymnastics, as she joined teammate Simone Biles and Brazil's Rebecca Andrade.
But then, on the last day of the Olympics, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that the Chiles appeal was submitted past the one-minute deadline, and changed her score to drop her back into fifth place. The next day, on Aug. 11, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) determined that Chiles must return the medal.
However, after the end of the Olympics in August, USA Today reported that Chiles and the rest of the U.S. Olympic team had "no intention" of returning the medal, as they continue to appeal the IOC's decision.
Chiles' lawyers have argued that her coach did in fact make the request in time and that there is video evidence to prove it, and has also indicated that the official who made the decision to strip Chiles' medal had ties to Romania.
"Chiles asks the Supreme Court to find that the CAS decision was procedurally deficient for two reasons," Chiles’ lawyers said in a statement, according to Olympics.com.
"First, CAS violated Chiles’ fundamental ‘right to be heard’ by refusing to consider the video evidence that showed her inquiry was submitted on time – in direct contradiction to the findings in CAS’ decision.
"Second, the entire CAS proceeding was unfair because Chiles was not properly informed that Hamid G. Gharavi, the President of the CAS panel that revoked Chiles’s bronze medal and awarded it instead to a Romanian gymnast, had a serious conflict of interest: Mr. Gharavi has acted as counsel for Romania for almost a decade and was actively representing Romania at the time of the CAS arbitration."
Chiles has also filed an appeal in the Swiss Federal Supreme Court to overturn the CAS decision. She argued that she was not given a fair opportunity to defend herself and that the CAS did not properly consider video evidence.
Chiles and her teammates have been outspoken about the emotional toll that losing the medal has had on her in the months following the end of the Olympics.
Chiles gave her first sit-down interview about the incident this week during a panel at the Forbes Power Women's Summit 2024 in September. The gymnast choked up and teared up when she was asked about the topic.
"To me, everything that has gone on is not about the medal, it's about, you know, my skin color," Chiles said.
Chiles previously claimed she was facing "racially driven attacks" from social media users in a statement posted to X on Aug. 15. When Chiles won the bronze medal, it resulted in the first gymnastics podium in Olympic history that featured three black contestants.
"It's about the fact that there were things that have led up to this position of being an athlete and I felt like everything has been stripped."
The controversy has brought international scrutiny upon the judges who scored the event. The Center of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) released a joint statement on Aug. 15 condemning the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the judging crew for the outcome.
"If the FIG had put such a mechanism or arrangement in place, a great deal of heartache would have been avoided," the CAS’ ad-hoc panel said in a release. "The Panel expresses the hope that the FIG will draw the consequences of this case, in relation to these three extraordinary Athletes and also for other Athletes and their supporting personnel, in the future, so that this never happens again."
Team USA's Simone Biles celebrated winning gold in the artistic gymnastics women's team final.
Naomi Baker/Staff/Getty Images
Getty Images released its top sports photos of 2024.
Photographers captured athletes from around the world as they competed in the Olympic Games.
Beyond Paris, the sports world stayed active, with the Super Bowl, Euros, World Series, and more.
Olympic years are a particularly special time for sports, and 2024 was no different.
As crowds gathered in Paris to watch their favorite athletes compete, the world's biggest stars rose to the occasion. From Simone Biles' triumphant return to the Olympic stage to Julien Alfred winning Saint Lucia's first Olympic medal, the events in Paris captured much of the sport world's attention this year.
And yet, there were still so many more moments to celebrate.
Michael Heiman, VP of global sport at Getty Images, told Business Insider, "It was a busy year. The summer Olympics is always kind of at the height of the sports calendar, the four-year cycle," adding, "But the other thing is that stuff doesn't stop just because it's an Olympic year."
As the ninth-largest industry in the world — worth $2.65 trillion, according to the Global Institute of Sport — sports smashed new barriers this year, and photographers were there to capture the emotions and history-making moments.
The growth of women's sports was particularly impactful in 2024, and is only gaining momentum. More than 18 million people watched Iowa and South Carolina compete in the NCAA women's basketball championship, the WNBA secured an 11-year media rights deal worth about $2.2 billion, and women's sports merchandise alone is estimated to be worth $4 billion.
On February 2, competitors in the AlUla Tour in Saudi Arabia passed the largest mirrored building in the world, Maraya.
Riders passed the largest mirrored building in the world, Maraya, during the fourth stage of the AlUla Tour.
Anne-Christine POUJOULAT/Contributor/AFP via Getty Images
British rider Simon Yates, 31, won the overall race with a time of 18 hours, 37 minutes, and five seconds.
Team Kazakhstan competed at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha on February 9.
Team Kazakhstan competed in the Mixed Team Free Final at the Doha 2024 World Aquatics Championships.
Quinn Rooney/Staff/Getty Images
Heiman told BI that the World Aquatics Championships in Doha was the first major event where Getty used its new underwater robotic camera.
"This is a camera we spent the last two years developing," he said, adding that the first version was built in 2015.
To capture the action, the camera was put underwater "a few days" before competition, then photographers were "able to fully control it like a video game" from the pool deck or in the media center.
"What the photographers are really looking for is to tell the story of artistic swimming. It's beautiful from above, but so much happens underwater and you see just all the coordination that it takes to lift this athlete up," Heiman said.
He added, "But really using the reflection that you get from the water above to kind of make this mirror image, it really speaks to what all it takes, everything that goes into performing some of these sequences."
Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift shared a kiss after the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl on February 11.
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce kissed his girlfriend, Taylor Swift, after winning the Super Bowl.
As one of two Getty Images photographers allowed on the field after the game, "Ezra [Shaw] was tasked with finding Travis and staying as close to Travis as possible, which is really, really hard in this environment," Heiman said.
"There's tons of people, everyone's pushing. You have security, you have other members of media, you have TV, and [Shaw] was just able to get in the right place and get this kind of, the guy wins the game, he gets the girl kind of photo, which was iconic and seen by everyone," he added.
The World Aquatics Championships also saw Annika Bornebusch of Team Denmark compete in the women's 20-meter high dive on February 14.
Team Denmark's Annika Bornebusch competed in the women's 20-meter high dive.
Adam Pretty/Staff/Getty Images
Bornebusch appeared to defy gravity as she completed one of her dives.
Team Australia's Rhiannan Iffland ultimately won the competition with 342 points.
Chase Dougherty competed at The American Rodeo in Arlington, Texas, on March 9.
Chase Dougherty competed at The American Rodeo.
Al Bello/Staff/Getty Images for Teton Ridge
Dougherty was one of four competitors to advance to the bull-riding finals, which was won by Creek Young.
In addition to competing at The American Rodeo, some of Dougherty's 2024 career highlights include winning the Western Stampede, the Santa Maria Elks Rodeo, and the Sisters Rodeo. He's also a one-time qualifier for the National Finals Rodeo.
On March 13, photographer Phil Walter mounted a camera on a canoe to capture New Zealand's Finn Butcher racing ahead of the Olympics.
Photographer Phil Walter placed a camera on the front of athlete Finn Butcher's canoe.
Phil Walter/Staff/Getty Images for NZOC
Thanks to Getty Images' partnership with the New Zealand Olympic Committee, Heiman said photographer Phil Walter was able to "mount a waterproof small action camera on the front of this canoe" in order to "really give you insight into what these athletes are kind of experiencing as they come down the course."
He added that the end result is a credit to collaborating with the athlete and organizers to ensure that everything was safe and not impeding performance.
Butcher went on to compete in his first Olympic Games in Paris, where he won gold in the inaugural men's kayak cross event.
Joseph Manu of the Sydney Roosters scored a try during a March 28 match.
Joseph Manu's score was later disallowed.
Cameron Spencer/Staff/Getty Images
The acrobatic score was later disallowed, and the Roosters' opponent, the Penrith Panthers, went on to win the match 22-16.
The Carolina Hurricanes' Dmitry Orlov hit the New York Rangers' Jonny Brodzinski during the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on May 11.
Dmitry Orlov hit Jonny Brodzinski during game four of the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Bruce Bennett/Staff/Getty Images
Orlov hit Brodzinski in the third period of the game. The Hurricanes won the game 4-3 to keep their Stanley Cup hopes alive, bringing the series to 3-1.
The Rangers went on to win the series four games to two.
Photographer Sean M. Haffey captured Cole Houshmand competing in the Shiseido Tahiti Pro on May 30.
Photographer Sean M. Haffey shot surfer Cole Houshmand competing in the Shiseido Tahiti Pro.
Sean M. Haffey/Staff/Getty Images
Unlike other surfing events where photographers can shoot from the beach, Heiman said the Shiseido Tahiti Pro requires photographers to capture the action from small boats since the waves break about a kilometer off shore.
He added that while there were plenty of "amazing photos during Paris," he wanted to highlight this one because it's "about the preparation."
"You know, [Haffey's] out on the water for 12 hours. There's tons of spray," Heiman said, adding, "What kind of protection do you need for your cameras? What lenses do you need? How does the sunlight work? So, we sent [Haffey] to cover the Tahiti Pro before Paris as a preparation for Paris. So when we got there, we knew exactly what we wanted to do and what we needed to do."
Novak Djokovic slid for a shot during a fourth round French Open match on June 3.
Novak Djokovic competed in the fourth round of the 2024 French Open.
Clive Mason/Staff/Getty Images
Djokovic fought through a right knee injury to defeat Argentina's Francisco Cerundolo during a fourth round match at Roland-Garros.
However, he withdrew from the competition the following day.
Richard Riakporhe landed an upper cut on Chris Billam-Smith during the WBO World Cruiserweight Title fight on June 15.
Chris Billam-Smith and Richard Riakporhe competed in the WBO World Cruiserweight Title fight.
Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Billam-Smith went on to win the fight by a unanimous decision after 12 rounds.
The Florida Panthers' Matthew Tkachuk lifted the Stanley Cup after defeating the Edmonton Oilers in game seven on June 24.
Matthew Tkachuk lifted the Stanley Cup after the Florida Panthers' game seven win.
Carmen Mandato/Staff/Getty Images
The Panthers won their first Stanley Cup with a 2-1 game seven victory.
Tkachuk told reporters after the game, "It's not a dream anymore. It's not a dream, it's reality. I can't believe it. I can't believe it."
On July 14, Spain celebrated its Euro final win.
Spain won the Euro 2024 final 2-1 against England.
Alex Pantling - UEFA/Contributor/UEFA via Getty Images
Spain defeated England 2-1 to win the Euros, with the game-winning goal coming from Mikel Oyarzabal in the 86th minute.
On July 14, Carlos Alcaraz won his second consecutive Wimbledon championship title.
Carlos Alcaraz defeated Novak Djokovic to win Wimbledon.
Julian Finney/Staff/Getty Images
The 21-year-old from Spain defeated Novak Djokovic in straight sets to win his second consecutive Wimbledon title and his fourth overall Grand Slam.
Pistol shooter Kim Yeji won the Olympic silver medal in the women's 10-meter air pistol final on July 28.
Kim Yeji won silver in the women's 10m air pistol final.
Simone Biles celebrated winning the artistic gymnastics women's team gold medal on July 30.
Team USA's Simone Biles celebrated winning gold in the artistic gymnastics women's team final.
Naomi Baker/Staff/Getty Images
Biles, alongside Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, brought home the gold in the women's team final.
In Paris, Biles added four medals to her Olympic count, bringing her total to 11, with seven golds, two silvers, and two bronzes to make her the most decorated gymnast in American history.
On August 3, Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia won her country's first Olympic medal — and it was gold.
Photographer Richard Heathcote captured this moment using a camera mounted to a broadcast rig.
Richard Heathcote/Staff/Getty Images
Though Heiman said this photo doesn't necessarily look unique, it is because the technology used to capture it was actually five years in the making.
The process started in 2019 at the World Athletics Championships in Doha when the company first communicated with the event's broadcaster about mounting a camera on their rig.
After a small action camera didn't yield the desired quality, they decided to move forward with a bigger camera that was used in Paris and was wirelessly triggered by photographer Richard Heathcote, who was in the media center.
"[Heathcote] was actually our robotics photographer, so while he was shooting this picture, he was also manning two robots that are in the roof, following the action with a little joystick," Heiman said, adding that Heathcote also had a foot pedal controlling a camera. "So all in, there's about 15 remotes on this moment, and [Heathcote's] controlling kind of all of them, as I kind of joke, ends up like a drummer, right?"
"It's just a really good composition. You have the Olympic rings, you have Paris in there, you know where it is, you see the purple lights in the background, all the nation's flags in the background. It's just a really amazing athletics photo and a really unique one," Heiman said.
Photographer Hector Vivas created a layered image of the jumping individual final on August 6.
Photographer Hector Vivas captured and layered moments from the jumping individual final.
Hector Vivas/Stringer/Getty Images
"One of the ideas that Hector [Vivas] came up with was he wanted to shoot the Games with this technique he's been working on called layering, and that's really, you set a camera up at one spot, it stays fixed, so it's and then you shoot as the event unfolds," Heiman said, noting that Vivas decided when to fire the shutter each time.
"Every time I look at it, I find a new part of it that I didn't see before," Heiman added, comparing the photo to pages of "Where's Waldo?"
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif kissed her gold medal on August 9.
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won the gold medal in Paris.
However, despite the scrutiny, she went on to win the gold medal in the welterweight boxing event. Khelif wrote on Instagram, "From dreams to reality, the journey is gold. Proud to stand at the top for my country and the ones who believed. The fight never stops, only gets stronger."
Australian breaker Raygun gave the crowd a memorable performance on August 9.
Australian B-girl Raygun competed at the 2024 Olympics.
Ezra Shaw/Staff/Getty Images
Rachael Gunn, also known by her B-girl name Raygun, also received a lot of attention online for her performance at the 2024 Olympics.
Though she was eliminated during the round-robin stage of the competition, her moves were instantly documented as memes and she became the subject of misinformation.
Gunn retired from competitive breaking in November.
Team USA's Stephen Curry launched a shot over Team France's Victor Wembanyama during the men's basketball Olympic final on August 10.
Team USA defeated Team France 97-87.
Ezra Shaw/Staff/Getty Images
Standing at 6-foot-2, Curry launched his shot over 7-foot-3 Wembanyama.
The US won the game 98-87, and Curry finished with 24 points and five assists.
Poland's Kinga Dróżdż reacted after winning the category A wheelchair fencing semifinal at the Paralympics on September 3.
Dróżdż won the women's sabre category A semifinal.
Steph Chambers/Staff/Getty Images
According to the International Wheelchair & Amputee Sport Federation (IWAS) Wheelchair Fencing, category A fencers "have good trunk control."
Dróżdż defeated Eva Andrea Hajmasi of Hungary 15-12 in the women's sabre category A semifinal to advance to the final.
There, she won the silver medal after losing to Haiyan Gu.
On October 11, Thorbjørn Olesen played a shot on the 18th hole during round two of the FedEx Open de France.
Denmark's Thorbjørn Olesen played a shot on the 18th hole at the FedEx Open de France.
Warren Little/Staff/Getty Images
Olesen tied for second place with Yannik Paul, Sam Bairstow, and Jeff Winther, all of whom scored 15 under.
English golfer Dan Bradbury came in first place with a score of 16 under par.
Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off grand slam in game one of the World Series on October 25.
LA Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, #5, hit a walk-off grand slam in game one of the World Series.
The Dodgers went on to win the series four games to one.
Ironman athletes competed in the swimming leg of the World Championship race on October 26.
Photographer Ezra Shaw used a drone to capture part of the VinFast Ironman World Championships.
Ezra Shaw/Staff/Getty Images for IRONMAN
Heiman said that photographer Ezra Shaw used a drone to take this image of Ironman competitors, which takes a lot of preparation.
"He has to go photograph the actual venue. He's not just there operating a drone, so he needs to get there, set it up, fly it, take his pictures, come down, and then go on to probably the athletes coming out of the water to get on the bikes," Heiman said.
Olympic gymnast Simone Biles caught heat before the start of the NFL season for showing up to husband Jonathan Owens’ preseason game with the Chicago Bears in an outfit sporting the safety's former team.
But on Thursday night, she silenced the critics.
The decorated Olympian arrived at Soldier Field in Chicago before the Bears’ Week 17 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks wearing an outfit decorated entirely with photographs of her husband's face.
Owens reposted a photo of Biles to his Instagram Stories with the caption, "Ain’t she beautiful."
Fans received the outfit choice well this time around.
In August, before a preseason game against the Cincinnati Bengals, the gymnast irked some by wearing a jacket depicting Owens when he played for the Green Bay Packers. Unbothered by the criticism, Biles later shared the photos on social media with the message, "Bear down."
Owens signed a two-year contract with the Bears in March after spending one season with the Packers. He was excused from the start of training camp this summer to support his wife as she went on to make history at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Biles won four medals, including three gold, to bring her total Olympic medal count to 11 — the most by any American female gymnast.
Her amazing rebound in Paris, following her well-chronicled troubles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, earned her the runner-up spot for AP Female Athlete of the Year honors, just behind WNBA star Caitlin Clark.
Simone Biles is an elite athlete and one of the greatest gymnasts of all time, but she recently admitted she struggled to get through a workout.
Biles apparently took some time off after she won her fifth, sixth and seventh Olympic gold medals earlier this year in Paris.
But she recently resumed her workouts.
According to Biles' social media account, Pilates was at least part of her first post-Olympics workout, but her experience with the popular exercise was not something she is interested in doing again.
"First time working out since the olympics," the superstar gymnast wrote on her Instagram story Wednesday. "This is what I wore to a Pilates class that I will never be attending again! Y'all stay strong out there lmao. It was too hard."
Joseph Pilates is credited with developing the exercise. A typical Pilates class involves machines, which use bands and movable benches.
Exercises focus on Improving flexibility and building muscle strength. When done properly, Pilates has also been known to help lower back and leg muscles.
Biles has not ruled out competing again in the Olympics.
"Never say never. The next Olympics is at home. So, you just never know. But I am getting really old," Biles, 27, said in August.
The Summer Games are scheduled to return to the U.S. in 2028, when athletes from across the globe descend upon Los Angeles. It will mark the first time since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics an American city hosts the summer edition of the Games.
In addition to the three gold medals she earned at the Paris Olympics, Biles also won silver in the floor exercise.
Vikings running back Aaron Jones took a handoff from Sam Darnold at the one-yard line, but Owens stiffed him at the line, then ripped the ball out of his hands and recovered the very fumble he forced.
He and his Bears teammates celebrated together, but he wanted a moment for himself.
Owens took the celebration up a notch by posing in a gymnast style after they stick landings; obviously as an ode to his wife, who is enjoying the game in a suite.
Earlier this season, Owens blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown. After that play, Biles posted on X that she "almost had a heart attack." It had been the second touchdown of Owens' career.
