A/N: Well, I was hoping to upload sooner than this lol, but it's been a busy time! But Simone is an absolute GOAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTT! And Jade got her vault redemption!

Hope you're excited to see where this story is going, because believe me... it isn't ending anytime soon.

People say Simone is the GOAT because of her all-around dominance and her incredibly difficult skills, but to me, I feel JJ is deserving of the GOAT title as well, don't you think? I know she's not all-around dominant like Simone, but she is the only person who has ever beaten Simone in a major AA competition!

100% this. JJ is beloved and adored, there's no question, but I feel people still view her as a beam specialist - which is kind of her own fault for being so damn good at it! However, and this could be controversial (don't get me wrong, I LOVE Simone), I absolutely believe JJ is the greatest gymnast this country has produced so far, and I'm going to illustrate why with some stats.

Between 2011 and 2017, JJ individually qualified to 26 finals (all-around and event). Out of those 26 finals, she has walked away with 24 medals. The two finals she didn't medal in were the 2015 vault final (difficulty was just a little too low to contend for medals, and it was her first vault final), and the 2015 uneven bars final, which was solely due to the fact that four gymnasts tied for gold. If medals had been awarded on scores irrespective of how many gymnasts were ranked above her, JJ would have walked away with another bronze medal. That gives JJ a 92% success rate in individual finals. Now if you add in team medals here, because JJ physically contributed scores to every team medal except for 2010, that brings her total finals qualified for to 32, and considering the US won a medal in every single one of those finals, her success rate jumps to almost 94%. Absolutely INSANE statistics from a gymnast that A) isn't a Soviet, and B) was absolutely on not a single person's radar in the first two years of her career as a senior elite.

In addition to that, she is the only American gymnast to have medalled in every event at the World Championships and the Olympic Games (not combined either, she's managed both separately) (she made the Olympic achievement in 2016 when she won a vault medal, and for Worlds, it was last year in Montreal when she also won a vault medal), and one of the few gymnasts globally to have achieved that feat.

I actually want to write a huge piece on JJ and her career so far because she has made history in multiple ways and created records of her own accord - but because she's competing alongside Simone Biles, who is ALSO creating records and history every time she steps on a mat, I genuinely feel JJ's achievements have been largely overshadowed by US media. But… I think I need to wait until she's DONE done… because girly keeps returning!

All in all though… it goes to show that whatever Nick Romero is doing with his gymnasts is absolutely the right thing. JJ did not break into junior or senior elite as a readymade star, and neither has her junior compatriot, Kate Albridge. Kate absolutely has amazing potential, but she's only 15 years old… there's no need for her to be at the absolute peak of her potential just yet, and Nick is one of the only coaches in the US who seems to understand that. Don't get me wrong, a lot of JJ's success also comes from raw natural talent and an undeniable passion for this sport, but she has been so lucky to end up paired with a coach who understands how to coach and develop gymnasts into stars without breaking them and burning them out along the way. We're definitely seeing a shift towards longevity in this sport because of athletes like Aly and JJ, and I'm excited to see where it takes us in the future.

"Ok girls, we're going to finish our practice today on the balance beam. Has everyone been practising their cartwheels at home?"

A chorus of 'yes!' rang out from the group of little girls standing in front of the coach. Bailey-Rose stood in the middle, her little chest puffed out as she fixed all her attention on her coach. But around her, her teammates were losing focus, whispering and pointing across the gym. Despite that, Bailey-Rose was determined to win praise, remaining steadfastly focused on Coach Grace.

"Girls… girls, I need you to stay focused. We only have half an hour left, I know it's hard, but we're almost finished," Grace called out, brushing her long ponytail back over her shoulder. Only seconds later, however, she noticed what had drawn the girls' attention, and allowed a smile to creep onto her face. "Hey Bailey-Rose?"

"Yeah?" Bailey-Rose replied diligently.

"You might want to turn around," Grace said with a little chuckle. Bailey-Rose obliged, her eyes searching past her whispering teammates until they landed on a familiar face standing at the far corner of the gym floor. Almost immediately, her face lit up, a little gasp escaping as she fought her way out of the middle of the group and ran full pelt across the floor.

"JJ!" she shrieked, throwing herself at her aunt as her smile grew even wider by the second. "Oh my gosh!"

"Hey B-Rose!" JJ chuckled, bending over to wrap the youngster in a tight hug. "How are you?"

"Good! You're here! I didn't know you were comin'!" Bailey-Rose said breathlessly, pulling back and allowing Will to give her a hug as well. "Why are you here?"

"Your mom said you've been a little down lately, so we thought we'd come down for a quick visit before I have to go to Boston," JJ said with a smile, crouching down so she was eye level with the nine year old.

"Can you come and say hello to my friends so they know I was tellin' the truth?" Bailey-Rose blurted out, her face suddenly bright and pleading. "I said I wanted to do big gymnastics like you, and my friends didn't believe that you're really my auntie!"

Will chuckled as JJ nodded, her face softening into a smile.

"Lead the way," she said with a little laugh, straightening up and holding out her hand to Bailey-Rose, allowing the younger girl to eagerly pull her back over to the training group as Will turned and made his way up to the mezzanine where parents could sit and watch the classes.

"Miss Grace! Miss Grace! My Auntie JJ came to visit me!" Bailey-Rose said excitedly as she tugged JJ over to join their little group. "No-one believed me when I said she's my auntie, but I was tellin' the truth!"

Grace chuckled. "Well you're certainly very lucky aren't you Bailey-Rose!"

"Are you really her auntie?" piped up one of the girls in the front of the group, a skeptical look on her young face. JJ smiled.

"I sure am. Bailey-Rose's dad and my husband are brothers… so that makes me her auntie," she said warmly, still holding her niece's hand.

"See? I was bein' for real!" Bailey-Rose said proudly, making the adults laugh. "Miss Grace, can JJ come to beam with us?"

"If she would like to, sure!" Grace said with a smile. "Maybe JJ will have some tips for you all, since she's the Olympic champion on beam!"

Excited chatter broke out amongst the little girls as Grace began to lead the group over to the beams.

"Ok, can you break into four even groups, and start taking it in turns to straight jump along the beam. Once you get to the end, hop off and go to the end of your group's line!" Grace called out, coming to a stop at the edge of the beam area as the girls rushed to the ends of the beams. JJ came to stand beside her, watching as Bailey-Rose joined a group with three other little girls, her smile still wide and excited as she waited her turn to mount the beam.

"So you're heading to Boston for nationals real soon, I'm guessing?" Grace asked conversationally, keeping an eye on her young group as she shot JJ a smile.

JJ nodded. "Yeah, I fly up on Monday for podium training, but Will's going back to Pittsburgh, he couldn't get the whole week off work"

"I don't know how you guys do it, my husband and I struggle enough with normal jobs," Grace chuckled. "Throw in flying around the world for gymnastics meets and training forty hours a week, forget the skills and the Olympic medals, you're a superhero for maintaining a marriage"

JJ laughed. "Yeah, sometimes I'm reminded how insane it is that we survived the first six years of our relationship… but the culture in USAG is definitely changing, and it's making that life balance a whole lot easier, which is great. And Nick is pretty chill. If I'm not having a good week and I need an extra day or two over the weekend to get my head on straight, he'll give it to me"

"Obviously it's hard to tell from what you see on TV, so many coaches in the 90s turned out to be… well, you know. But Nick seems great. You always look relaxed at competitions… well, as relaxed as you can be when there's a world title on the line"

"I definitely didn't look relaxed at any point in 2012, believe me," JJ laughed. "If you go back and watch any competition from that season, I look like I'm about to cry or throw up most of the time. That had nothing to do with Nick though, he was constantly telling me I was doubting myself, and I refused to listen… until he got proven right"

Grace laughed with her, turning her attention towards the little girls as they finished their warmup on the beam. "Alright girls, let's work on some skills. Everyone who is still working on cartwheels, line up here at the end of this beam. If you have progressed to back walkovers, line up at beam number two. If you are working on your back handspring, line up at beam number three, and if you can do all three of those skills and would like to learn something new, please line up at beam number four!"

As the girls shuffled around to their allocated beams, Bailey-Rose ran over, grabbing JJ's hands.

"Can you show us something on beam?" she asked in an excited whisper. "Please?"

JJ chuckled. "I could, but only if your coach says it's ok"

Bailey-Rose turned to Grace, her eyes practically pleading. Grace laughed.

"Why not? Maybe JJ can inspire you guys"

Allowing Bailey-Rose to tug her towards the apparatus, JJ slipped her shoes off at the edge of the mat, before stepping up to one of the beams as Bailey-Rose rejoined her friends. Aware of the fifteen pairs of wide, excited eyes fixed on her, she grabbed the top of the beam and hoisted herself up onto the narrow apparatus, carefully walking down towards the end until her toes could almost touch the beam cap. She wasn't warm, so she couldn't throw anything super crazy, but she knew she could manage a back handspring layout series in her sleep… and that was sure to be more than enough to inspire fifteen little girls.

She took a breath to steady herself, lifting her arms up above her head, her eyes fixed on the end of the beam. She visualised the line of the beam stretching out behind her, her body poised perfectly above it.

And then she swung back. Her muscle memory took over, driving her through a back handspring stepout, into a back handspring to two feet, punching perfectly into a surprisingly flighty layout, which she landed with very little trouble at the other end of the beam as the little girls watching her gasped and broke into excited applause. Breaking into a smile, JJ relaxed, taking a step forward and hopping off the beam as Bailey-Rose ran up to her.

"That was so cool!"

"I want to learn how to do that!" another girl piped up.

"Did you do that to win your Olympic medal?" a little redheaded girl asked.

"I actually did it with a full twist when I won my Olympic medal," JJ chuckled. "So it's normally a lot harder"

"Wow!"

From that moment, the last 20 minutes of the session flew by. JJ ended up at Bailey-Rose's beam, helping spot the girls working on their back handsprings, providing pointers that had always helped her as she worked her way through new skills. In the last five minutes, for a bit of fun, the entire group, JJ and Grace included, took turns attempting wolf turns on the beam - the one skill JJ had never managed well enough to put into a competition routine. It had devolved into a lot of laughter, arms and legs flailing around as they all fell off the beams at various points in the turns, and the young girls had found it incredibly amusing to see that there were still skills that even an Olympic beam champion couldn't manage.

Before dismissing the group, they had crowded in for a group photo with JJ, Bailey-Rose sitting squarely in JJ's lap, all fifteen little girls wearing excited toothy grins as the gym owner snapped a photo of a memory that would last a lifetime.

When JJ and Will left, one very excited niece bounding along between them as they headed to the car, JJ was feeling incredibly humbled. Not that she had ever let her achievements go to her head - in her mind, she was still just a normal person who happened to really enjoy a particular sport, and was doing incredibly well in it. But spending half an hour with fifteen little girls who she knew were among the thousands of little girls that tuned in to NBC to watch Nationals and Worlds every year… it gave her an incredible sense of purpose.

For not only was she finding her love of gymnastics once more, stoking it to grow even stronger… she was helping inspire the next generation to carry the torch while doing so.