sport news Sexually assaulted as a girl by USA's team doctor, yet Simone Biles is the best ...

Days tend to start the same way for Simone Biles. There's a moan, a groan and a grudging appreciation of the irony that she, the woman who has redefined the art of movement, can barely lie in bed without something aching.

'Oh, this body,' she says, sweeping a hand from head down to toe, a journey of approximately four feet and eight inches.

'It starts when I wake up. I can tell you almost straight away if it is cold or not because my bones will shake. I joke to my friends a lot that I am going to be in a wheelchair at 30.

Simone Biles has redefined the art of movement but can barely lie in bed without aching

Simone Biles has redefined the art of movement but can barely lie in bed without aching

'My body feels like it is maybe in its 30s or 40s. Maybe older. Inside it is screaming and yelling at me.'

Outwardly Biles is laughing. It's all normal to her and at the same time she knows it shouldn't be for a 22-year-old. 'Pain is just something I live with and that is pretty odd for my age, right? It feels weird if I'm not in pain.

'I was thinking about this — I've been quite fortunate with injuries but there's been some stuff. There's been a calf I have partially torn two or three times, I broke a rib in 2016, and oh yeah, it turned out my toe was shattered in five pieces after the last Olympics without me knowing.

'That was weird. I had it for ages and used to tell people it was going to fall off. One day I had it X-rayed and they were asking how long it had been bad. I'd had it about two years. Oh, and my shoulder, I'm not even going to go into specifics but that, too.

'I guess that is it. If you are jumping up in the air all the time, sometimes gravity says no.'

And then she giggles again, this American superstar who walked out of Heathrow Airport on Monday afternoon barely drawing a glance from those around her.

At this point, a few numbers: she has four Olympic gymnastics gold medals and one bronze, each won at Rio 2016, and she has collected 14 world titles.

She walked out of Heathrow Airport on Monday barely drawing a glance from those around her

She walked out of Heathrow Airport on Monday barely drawing a glance from those around her

Her margin of victory for the all-around gold over silver at the worlds last year was bigger than the gap between the silver medal and 12th place. As it happens, she felt her performance that day let down her country.

Next, a couple of common conclusions: she is regarded as the best gymnast in history and by extension she can be fairly ranked among the true wonders of the wider sporting world.

To reiterate, she is only 22, has had a life that has also included her adoption by her grandparents at six because her mother was addicted to drink and drugs, and the sexual assault she suffered by the jailed USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.

That she can spring from the floor to the height of a basketball hoop despite so much that might weigh her down is astonishing.

And now Biles has come to London, where she will compete on Saturday in the Superstars of Gymnastics event at The O2. Watching that short and muscular frame twist, contort and fly ought to stand as a bucket-list item for the recent sporting era, next to Messi, Williams, Federer, Woods, Kohli, Phelps and Bolt.

Except here, unlike in the US and probably unlike those others, she feels largely anonymous and blessedly so.

'When I landed, a couple of people recognised me at the customs line but that was about it and it was nice,' she says.

'I don't want it to sound wrong because I worked my whole life to be good at something, and to get recognised for that is nice, but it can be pretty hard.

'At home I get it a lot. If I go out someone will always recognise me, stop me. I haven't been able to go one place without someone recognise me, so this is nice. It can feel a bit weird to be put on a pedestal.'

And that, really, is a key topic for Biles at this point, 491 days out from Tokyo 2020 and her

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