Lee's performance at US Championships lifted by Biles pep talk

Sunisa Lee thought her chances of making the U.S. team for the Paris Olympics had crumbled after an awful vault at the national championships earlier this month but some words of encouragement from team mate Simone Biles helped to turn her meet around.

Since winning gold in the all-around at the Tokyo Olympics Lee has spent time sidelined with kidney illnesses and needed a strong performance at the pressure packed competition to stay in the running for the five-person Paris squad.

On the first rotation of the final day, Lee got slightly wrongfooted on her run toward the apparatus, abandoned her planned double twist and landed on her back.

"After my vault, I kind of just walked away," Lee told Reuters. "I really thought, this is going to be the end of my elite career."

Enter Biles, who took it upon herself to seek out and comfort Lee backstage at the arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

"I was in the tunnel kind of having a breakdown, telling myself to get it together and Simone came running over and asked me if I was doing okay," she said.

"She understood everything that I was going through, and basically told me to just remember my keywords, to go out there and do my thing and not focus on anything else."

Lee asked Biles to stand nearby to offer support during her uneven bars routine and the four-times Olympic champion could be heard urging the 21-year-old on during the June 2 broadcast.

Growing in confidence, Lee was aggressive on balance beam, one of her best events, and finished the competition in fourth place, greatly improving her chance of punching a ticket to Paris. The team will be named after this month's Olympic Trials.

Biles battled a case of the "twisties" - a mental block where gymnasts are disoriented in midair -