SPRING, Tex. — One Monday morning early in this Olympic year, on no particularly important day with nothing particularly important on the schedule, the world’s best female gymnast — perhaps the best gymnast in history — walked out of her bedroom and into the kitchen.

She sat at the kitchen counter, put her head in her hands and sighed.

The Rio Games were more than six months away, which made this another day of keeping her mind from drifting into dangerous territory.

“I’m not thinking about being in the Olympics,” said the gymnast, Simone Biles. “Well, at least I’m trying not to think about it.”