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Taylor Swift Applauds Simone Biles’ Floor Routine to ‘Ready for It’ at Gymnastics Olympic Trials
Simone Biles has Taylor Swift’s stamp of approval after using one of the pop star’s songs in the music for her floor routine at the gymnastics Olympic trials. The professional athlete’s music featured the beat of “…Ready for It?” from Taylor’s 2017 album, Reputation.
“Watched this so many times and still unready,” Taylor, 34, wrote on X, in response to a full video of Simone’s routine. “She’s ready for it tho.” She also included several clapping emojis, a gold medal emoji, an American Flag emoji and a red heart emoji.
After the opening music of “…Ready for It?” played and Simone, 27, did her thing, the announcer confirmed, “Triple double, hardest tumbling pass in the entire world right there.” The gymnast received the highest score of the day for her floor routine, while also coming in first place for the all-around and vault.
At the 2016 Olympics, Simone won three solo gold medals and a gold medal with her United States teammates. She returned for the 2020 Olympics, which took place during summer 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but only competed in the vault and balance beam. She withdrew from the rest of the competition due to a mental block.
“Walking away from the Olympic Games was a win in itself,” she explained in 2022. “I know a lot of people thought I failed because they expected me to go out with five or six medals, but walking out of it was my biggest win. I had to put myself into consideration for one of the first times throughout my career. Most of the time, I’ve always put myself on the back burner, because I’ve always cared and thought about everybody else before myself.”
Taylor supported Simone during this time too. When the Ohio native returned to compete on balance beam after sitting out from competing for several days at the 2020 Olympics, the “Fortnight” singer filmed a video to promote the performance.
“What do we want from our heroes?” she asked, along with a clip previewing Simone’s beam performance. “What do we expect from them? What do we need from them? What happens when they surprise us?” The clip then pivoted to show Simone’s rough vault performance from earlier in the Olympic Games.
Taylor continued, “When you have the attention of the world, everything you do takes a bigger meaning. It can be a heavy burden. It can be a chance to change everything.” In the background, her 2020 song “This Is Me Trying” was playing.
Simone responded to the preview video by writing on X (then-Twitter), “I’m crying. How special. I love you @taylorswift13.”
Amid Simone’s journey to make it back on the Olympic team for 2024, Taylor is on the summer European leg of her Eras tour. On Sunday, June 30, she’ll play her third show in Dublin, Ireland, before having a few days off. The tour resumes on Thursday, July 4, in Amsterdam, which will be the first of three concerts there.
The Eras tour will continue throughout the rest of this year, wrapping the European leg in mid-August and resuming with some dates in the United States and Canada from October to December.
