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U.S. Olympics gymnastics team set as Simone Biles secures third trip

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Simone Biles is heading back to the Olympics and the white-hot spotlight that comes with it.

The gymnastics superstar earned a third trip to her sport’s biggest stage by cruising to victory at the U.S. Olympic trials on Sunday night, posting a two-day all-around total of 117.225 to clinch the lone automatic spot on the five-woman team.

Three years removed from the Tokyo Olympics — where she pulled out of multiple finals to prioritize her safety and mental health — Biles heads back to the games looking perhaps as good as ever.

“Trusting the process and (my coaches), I knew I’d be back,” Biles said.

A trip to France has never really been in doubt since she returned from a two-year break last summer. All she’s done over the last 12 months is win a sixth world all-around title and her eighth and ninth national championship — both records — while further cementing her status as the best-ever in her sport.

2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Gymnastics - Day 4
Simone Biles waves to fans on Day Four of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Gymnastics Trials at Target Center on June 30, 2024 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Jamie Squire/Getty Images


She’ll head to Paris as a prohibitive favorite to bookend the Olympic gold she won in 2016, but with things to work on, too.

Biles backpedaled after landing her Yurchenko double pike vault, a testament to both the vault’s difficulty and the immense power she generates during a skill few male gymnasts try and even fewer land as cleanly.

She hopped off the beam after failing to land her side aerial, though she wasn’t quite as frustrated as she was during a sloppy performance on Friday that left her uttering an expletive for all the world to see.

Biles finished with a flourish on floor exercise, her signature event. Though there was a small step out of bounds, there was also the unmatched world-class tumbling that recently drew a shoutout from pop star Taylor Swift, whose song “Ready For It” opens Biles’ routine.

She stepped off the podium to a standing ovation, then sat down atop the steps to take in the moment in what could be her last competitive round on American soil for quite a while.

Next stop, Paris.

The Americans will be loaded with experience as they try to return to the top of the podium after finishing second to Russia in 2020.

Reigning Olympic champion Sunisa Lee, 2020 Olympic floor exercise champion Jade Carey and 2020 Olympic silver medalist Jordan Chiles and Hezley Rivera all made the final roster for Team USA. Joscelyn Roberson and Leanne Wong will travel to Paris as alternates.

2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Gymnastics - Day 4
Simone Biles, Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles react after competing on Day Four of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Gymnastics Trials at Target Center on June 30, 2024 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Elsa/Getty Images


Yet the Biles that will step onto the floor at Bercy Arena for Olympic qualifying in four weeks isn’t the same one that left Tokyo.

She’s taken intentional steps to make sure her life is no longer defined by her gymnastics. Biles married Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens in the spring of 2023 and the two are building a house in the northern Houston suburbs they hope to move into shortly after Biles returns from Paris.

Biles heads to France as perhaps the face of the U.S. Olympic movement, though she’s well aware that more than a few of the millions that will tune in to watch next month will be checking to see if the demons that derailed her in Tokyo resurface.

And while there are still moments of anxiety — including at last year’s world championships — she has put safeguards in place to protect herself. She meets with a therapist weekly, even during competition season, something she didn’t do in preparation for the 2020 games.

Biles, Lee, Carey, Chiles and Rivera will be considered heavy favorites in France, particularly with defending Olympic champion Russia unable to compete as part of the fallout from the war in Ukraine.

The Americans will take their oldest women’s team ever to the games, as Biles’ unrivaled longevity — she hasn’t lost a meet she’s started and finished since 2013 — and the easing of rules around name, image and likeness rules at the NCAA level allowed 2020 Olympic veterans Carey, Chiles and Lee to continue to compete while cashing in on their newfound fame at the same time.

They have relied on that experience to get back to this moment during a sometimes harrowing meet that saw leading contenders Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely and Kayla DiCello exit with leg injuries that took them out of the mix weeks before opening ceremonies.



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Supreme Court agrees to hear case about TikTok ban

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Supreme Court agrees to hear case about TikTok ban – CBS News


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The Supreme Court said Wednesday it will hear an appeal from TikTok over a federal law that would ban the social media giant if it is not sold by its Chinese parent company. Jan Crawford has more.

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Teen victim of AI-generated “deepfake pornography” urges Congress to pass “Take It Down Act”

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Anna McAdams has always kept a close eye on her 15-year-old daughter Elliston Berry’s life online. So it was hard to come to terms with what happened 15 months ago on the Monday morning after Homecoming in Aledo, Texas.

A classmate took a picture from Elliston’s Instagram, ran it through an artificial intelligence program that appeared to remove her dress and then sent around the digitally altered image on Snapchat.

“She came into our bedroom crying, just going, ‘Mom, you won’t believe what just happened,'” McAdams said.

Last year, there were more than 21,000 deepfake pornographic videos online — up more than 460% over the year prior. The manipulated content is proliferating on the internet as websites make disturbing pitches — like one service that asks, “Have someone to undress?”

“I had PSAT testing and I had volleyball games,” Elliston said. “And the last thing I need to focus and worry about is fake nudes of mine going around the school. Those images were up and floating around Snapchat for nine months.”

In San Francisco, Chief Deputy City Attorney Yvonne Mere was starting to hear stories similar to Elliston’s — which hit home.

“It could have easily been my daughter,” Mere said.

The San Francisco City Attorney’s office is now suing the owners of 16 websites that create “deepfake nudes,” where artificial intelligence is used to turn non-explicit photos of adults and children into pornography. 

“This case is not about tech. It’s not about AI. It’s sexual abuse,” Mere said.

These 16 sites had 200 million visits in just the first six months of the year, according to the lawsuit.

City Attorney David Chiu says the 16 sites in the lawsuit are just the start.

“We’re aware of at least 90 of these websites. So this is a large universe and it needs to be stopped,” Chiu said.

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is co-sponsoring another angle of attack with Democratic Minnesota Sen. Amy Klochubar. The Take It Down Act would require social media companies and websites to remove non-consensual, pornographic images created with AI.

“It puts a legal obligation on any tech platform — you must take it down and take it down immediately,” Cruz said.

The bill passed the Senate this month and is now attached to a larger government funding bill awaiting a House vote.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Snap told CBS News: “We care deeply about the safety and well-being of our community. Sharing nude images, including of minors, whether real or AI-generated, is a clear violation of our Community Guidelines. We have efficient mechanisms for reporting this kind of content, which is why we’re so disheartened to hear stories from families who felt that their concerns went unattended. We have a zero tolerance policy for such content and, as indicated in our latest transparency report, we act quickly to address it once reported.”

Elliston says she’s now focused on the present and is urging Congress to pass the bill.

“I can’t go back and redo what he did, but instead, I can prevent this from happening to other people,” Elliston said.



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Lawmakers target AI-generated “deepfake pornography”

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Lawmakers target AI-generated “deepfake pornography” – CBS News


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A 15-year-old girl who fell victim to artificial intelligence-created deepfake pornography is pushing Congress to pass a bill that would require social media companies and websites to remove non-consensual, pornographic images created with AI. Jim Axelrod reports.

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