Simone Biles wants to compete at next summer’s Paris Olympics.

In an interview with the TODAY show Thursday, the four-time Olympic champion gave the clearest indication yet that Paris is her goal, saying, "That’s the path that I would love to go."

"Everything that we're doing leading up to this next Games or whatever is very intentional," Biles said earlier. "So we've kind of been playing it on the down low this time, making sure mentally and physically are both intact."

Biles returned to competition last month for the first time since the Tokyo Olympics, where she was forced to withdraw one event into the team final after rising anxiety resulted in a case of "the twisties." She won a record eighth U.S. title with a performance that would give her gold in Paris. She brought back her groundbreaking Yurchenko double pike, a vault so difficult no other woman has done it in competition and few men even try it, and has polished her gravity-defying floor routine near to perfection.

But Biles and her team had been deliberate in trying to manage the expectations, which along with the isolating COVID protocols, contributed to her anxiety in Tokyo. No longer certain of where she was in the air and unwilling to put her health and safety at risk, Biles withdrew from all but one event final.

Though it was obvious Paris is the ultimate goal – no gymnast of Biles’ caliber returns a year before an Olympics just to win another national title or two – she and her coaches had refused, until now, to say that. They instead talked about the next meet in front of her or couched their plans with "Ifs."

"I have to take care of myself a little bit more and listen to my body and making sure that I'm making time for the important things in my life," Biles said. "Rather than before it was just like, 'Go, go, go.' And then making time after. And this time around it's like being intentional, going to therapy, making sure everything is aligned."

Biles has seven Olympic medals, including those four golds. She’s won more medals (25) and titles (19) at the world championships than any other gymnast, male or female. She has two skills named for her on floor exercise, and one each on vault and balance beam.

Yet despite all those accomplishments, she acknowledges she still doubts herself sometimes.

“There were times when I would come in the gym and I'd be like, 'You know what? No, I don't think this is going to work.' And then I was like, 'No, I'm going to give it another day. I'm going to give it another day.' So I think just showing up and putting that work and that effort in really, really came to play," Biles said.

"As long as I showed up for another day and kept putting in that work, then (the doubts) kind of went down and dwindled," she added. "So right now I'm feeling really good. I think I still sometimes doubt myself, but I'm still doing my therapy and making sure everything's aligned well."

And keeping her on a path that will take her to Paris.

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