Days after an injury, Simone Biles and her teammates from the U.S. women’s artistic gymnastics team won the gold medal in the team final. first medal At Paris 2024 Olympic Games and marked an incredible comeback for the historic athlete and for Team USA.
Italy took second place, finishing the final with 165.494 points to the U.S. team’s 171.296. It was Italy’s first Olympic medal in women’s gymnastics and its first Olympic medal in gymnastics overall in nearly a century. Team Brazil won bronze, finishing just one point behind Italy.
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The women artistic gymnastics team final The artistic gymnastics event took place Tuesday at Bercy Arena and featured Biles alongside American teammates Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Sunisa Lee. Biles competed on the uneven bars, vault, balance beam and floor exercise. It was an important competition for the American athletes, all of whom are returning to the Olympics this year after competing in previous Games, and especially for Biles, who was forced to leave the competition in 2020 due to a dangerous mental block that led her to withdraw from the competition.
Team USA was heavily favoured to win the final, having won back-to-back gold at the London and Rio Summer Games in 2012 and 2016, and winning a silver medal in the team competition in Tokyo last time out.
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After putting together remarkable routines on vault, uneven bars and balance beam, the U.S. team performed its expected floor exercise in the fourth and final rotation of the gymnastics finals. A trio of American Olympic veterans were expected to command the floor, with Biles on the bar, and all three did their part to rise to the occasion.
Lee was the first American gymnast to perform on the floor and delivered a solid routine with visible excitement as she came off the mat. Her family cheered wildly in the stands, as did the rest of the stadium. Lee earned an impressive 13.9 for the routine, which is scored out of 14 points. Chiles also nailed her floor routine, coming close to that perfect score with a 13.966.
Biles finished the final with a spectacular floor exercise to a standing ovation. It was arguably the most anticipated performance of Tuesday’s team competition, and Biles delivered. Her routine featured several of Biles’ signature gymnastics moves, including her first namesake, a double layout with a half-twist and a triple-double. The routine had solidified Team USA’s victory before Biles’ score was even revealed. She blew a kiss to the crowd as people chanted “USA!”
Earlier, Biles’s routine on the beam drew raucous applause from a crowd that included Olympic swimming legend Michael Phelps and filmmaker Spike Lee. Both Lee and Biles had strong performances on the beam that earned them high marks, especially after Chiles fell off the equipment during her beam routine, which preceded theirs. Her fall was the only notable mistake for the U.S. team throughout the final, where the U.S. athletes delivered high-level routines that continued to propel them ahead of their competitors in every round.
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The U.S. team, which had the top scores in qualifying over the weekend, competed in the finals against gymnasts from seven other teams that had placed well in qualifying: Italy, China, Brazil, Japan, Canada, Great Britain and Romania. The finals feature three gymnasts from each team competing in each gymnastics category.
Lee is the reigning all-around champion. But in the team finals, all three gymnasts’ scores are counted together. These parameters make the final particularly difficult because they leave little room for error for the competing athletes, raising the stakes compared to qualifying, where all four athletes competed and the lowest-scoring athlete’s scores were removed from the team total.
Biles, 27, made her highly anticipated return last weekend in the qualifying rounds and dominated, despite a calf injury that left her limping. Women’s gymnastics coach Cecille Landi, a former French Olympian, told reporters after the qualifying session that Biles injured her calf a few weeks ago and was on the mend.
The coach noted that Biles had no intention of quitting the competition, saying, “Never in her mind.”
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Team USA finished Sunday’s qualifying session with an impressive score of 172.296, putting them at the top of the field heading into the final, with Biles herself leaving qualifying as the top individual scorer of all the competing teams.
Biles, widely considered the greatest gymnast of all time, or GOAT, is currently competing in her third Olympics. It’s her first time since experiencing the “twisties,” a phenomenon where gymnasts lose their sense of place in the air, which forced her to abandonment of several events during the Tokyo Olympics.
Tuesday’s victory makes Biles the most decorated American Olympic gymnast, surpassing Shannon Miller’s seven medals, with the team gold being her eighth Olympic medal. She also tied with 1904 Olympian Anton Heida for the most gold medals won by an American gymnast.