Dress to impress: Let

By Desert Star Staff

Troubled American gymnastics superstar Simone Biles produced a superb performance on her surprise return for the balance beam final at the Olympic Games, earning bronze behind Chinese teenagers Chenchen Guan and Tang Xijing.

A four-time gold medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, out-ofsorts Biles shocked the world by making an early emotional withdrawal from the team event last Tuesday, blaming the ‘twisties’ – a sensation she later explained had caused her to have “no idea” where she was during performances.

Days of speculation and debate followed before Team USA excitedly announced on Monday that one of their most decorated athletes of all time would be returning to the beam, on which she won bronze five years ago.

Despite her previous anxieties, the 24-year-old produced a sure-footed show of balletic brilliance to put her in a medal position from the outset, with a score of 14 on her first attempt, meaning she only initially trailed 18-year-old former youth champion Tang.

“Did you all see that?” asked Team USA on social media, accompanying their words with a shot of Biles grinning. “That’s greatness.”

Elsabeth Black, of Canada, appeared to be Biles and Tang’s key rival for a place in the top three, only for 16-yearold Guan to intervene with a stunning display, storming to gold ahead of her compatriot. Biles earned her seventh honor at the Games, closing in on 1960s gymnastics legend Vera Caslavska’s haul of 11 medals at the showpiece.

‘Didn’t realize being hot was an Olympic sport’

By Desert Star Staff

Olympic fans have questioned the contribution of German track athlete Alica Schmidt to her team at the Tokyo 2020 Games. Despite the 22-year-old’s voluminous social media output, she hasn’t been featured yet in any discipline.

Schmidt qualified as part of Germany’s 400m relay team, but her debut dream was dashed when she was benched for Saturday’s mixed event. Nevertheless, Schmidt wouldn’t have seen the action as the German team was disqualified for contacting the Jamaican team.

Despite the inactivity, Schmidt has been active on social media, keeping her army of admirers updated on her every movement in Japan.

The German’s 2.3 million Instagram followers were garnered due to the attention from an Australian magazine article dubbing her the ‘World’s Sexiest Athlete.’ However, their arbitration was backed up by popular opinion.

Her crowd on that platform is kept happy with infrequent selfies and photo sessions, but her 419,500 Tik Tok fans have been treated to daily insights and updates with snippets of Tokyo life from touchdown to track training.

And they have become more cynical of what they’re seeing and have implied Schmidt is freeloading in Tokyo.

Schmidt posted a video showing off her Germany track vest and pants in a video titled “dreams can come true.” Still, many have so far come to the conclusion Team Deutschland has selected Schmidt to promote the Olympics through her undoubted good looks and throngs of followers rather than compete on merit.

One of the most recent videos from Schmidt was

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‘Tokyo 2020 Presents’, where she showed off her haul free stuff from Asics trainers and athletics clothes to Samsung phones and headphones, snacks and cola all for gratis as well as a look around the Olympic village.

The top comment to the clip read: “Enter Olympics to win X. Enter Olympics for free stuff” and has gained 118,00 likes so far, indicating some level of agreement with that opinion from her followers.

“You are on social media all day... how do you focus,” another wrote in the comments, while another compared Schmidt to another good-looking athlete in Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova: “This is like Anna Kournikova saying she was a champion tennis player. But, unfortunately, she was no good.”

Schmidt did explain her strength routine to prove to followers she does train and her summer in the land of the rising sun isn’t all about bagging freebies from sponsors.

“About 30 percent of my training is focused on strength. But, for the most part, explosive and functional full-body exercises are on my schedule,” she explained.

It’s super effective, strengthening and activating the leg muscles, the traditional way with squats and lunges. There are then seven to eight training sessions a week that lasts between two and three hours.”

Schmidt’s mantra, listed on her official Olympic profile, aims at those who criticize others, promoting cherishing their accomplishments instead of jealousy.

“Cherish other people’s success instead of being jealous of what they have accomplished. Your values, beliefs and expectations form your attitude. So bring on everything ahead and set your standards high,” she is quoted as saying.

The Worms-born blonde can still make her longawaited Olympic debut by being selected for the women’s 4x400m relay on Friday, but her chances are expected to be slim.

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