Tokyo (AFP)

She had exploded in Rio with four gold medals and one bronze.

Five years later, American gym superstar Simone Biles is already the winner of the Tokyo Olympics as she outclasses her rivals.

The rings specialist Samir Aït Saïd, flag bearer of the France team, who had spectacularly broken his leg at the Rio Olympics in 2016, wants to ward off his Olympic curse by bringing back a medal from Japan.

At 24 and for her second participation in the Games, a rarity in the discipline, Simone Biles can touch the record held by the Soviet Larissa Latynina - victorious in Tokyo in 1964 - of 9 Olympic titles.

The bomb Biles, figurehead of the American gymnastics team well on course to retain her title, will participate in the all-around (team and individual), and is favorite on floor and vault where she excels.

To beat Latynina's record, the challenge is nevertheless raised because she would have to achieve a faultless and win the six gold medals at stake, especially on uneven bars which are not her forte.

But, after all, Simone Biles is capable of anything.

On the cover of American Glamor, "The World's Greatest", in ceremonial dresses, she has already won.

She is the most medal-winning gymnast in world championship history with 25 medals, 19 of which are gold.

- "Pressure on the shoulders" -

"Now, I have nothing more to prove to anyone and that's good," she explains in a documentary, which she also produced, which was recently broadcast on Facebook.

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Long awaited, she will have "pressure on her shoulders", concedes her trainer, the French Laurent Landi, who has been coaching her since 2017 with his wife Cécile Landi.

Will she hold this pressure, her whose mind, between her difficult childhood, the sexual assaults of the American team doctor Larry Nassar, and a high-level athletic life, seems foolproof?

And above all, who to come and walk on the flower beds of the greatest gymnast of all time, who already has several figures named after her?

Of course, there are first her teammates, the Americans Sunisa Lee or Jordan Chiles.

Of course, there are the Russians, like Viktoria Listunova, just 16 years old, brilliant at the last European Championships, or Angelina Melnikova, royal at the bars.

Outsider also, the French Mélanie De Jesus Dos Santos, crowned European champion on the beam in April, fourth European title, who is stamping on an Olympic podium, at 21 years old.

Another Frenchwoman who nurtures ambitions, Marine Boyer, finished 4th on beam at the Rio Olympics.

In Ariake's gymnastics center, they will have strong opponents: the British twins Jennifer and Jessica Gadirova, the Chinese Zhang Jin, Lu Yufei, the Belgian Nina Derwael, or the Dutch champion Sanne Wevers on balance beam.

- Samir Aït Said "sharp" -

Among men, the French Samir Aït Saïd says he is "sharpened for a good battle" on the rings, with a new movement.

Opposite: the Greek Petrounias, reigning Olympic champion, qualified in extremis at the end of June, or the Chinese Liu Yang.

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The Russians, China and Japan will fight for the top spots.

At home, and without an audience, it will probably be the Olympic farewell of the Japanese king of the gym, Kohei Uchimura, 32 years old.

He will be satisfied with one lap on the high bar for his fourth Olympic Games, after gold in London and Rio in the all-around competition, and already 7 Olympic medals.

To succeed him, the Russian Nikita Nagornyy, as well as Artur Dalaloyan just recovered from a ruptured Achilles tendon, are in the ranks.

Also not to be missed, another phenomenon, the Uzbek gymnast Oksana Chusovitina who at 46 years old will participate in her ... eighth Olympic Games!

© 2021 AFP