Simone Biles And USA Gymnastics Win Gold Medal In Olympics Team Final

Biles assisted the U.S. in its win, receiving a third all-around team gold medal in the past four Olympics. She capped it off with an impressive floor exercise routine, making up for an underperforming showing just four years ago in Tokyo, Japan.

Despite suffering a minor calf injury in Sunday’s qualifying round, Biles was still able to participate in all four events alongside teammates Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and 16-year-old newcomer Hezly Rivera, getting back up on the podium.

The U.S. was awarded gold medals, Italy took silver, and Brazil won the bronze. Americans had a winning margin of 5.802 points.

The American squad began the competition on the vault, where they displayed a strong performance heading into the uneven bars. Lee in particular had a dazzling performance on the bars with a strong routine that prompted the judges to weigh risk and reward, earning a score of 14.566.

However, shockwaves were sent through the U.S. team after Chiles fell off the beam in the third rotation. Lee was able to get them back in the right form with a poised exercise. Additionally, Biles avoided an almost disaster on a side aerial, which is considered the easiest skill in her beam routine. Fortunately, she was able to stay on the beam. 

The U.S. squad had several points of difficulty advantage, allowing Chiles’s missed routine to have a minor impact on their gold medal hopes. Chiles, however, still made up for her previous routine, when she displayed high-flying acrobatics and a magnetic stage presence combined together. 

Meanwhile, Carey, the reigning Olympic floor champion, performed just one routine, a Chen on vault that earned a score of 14.800. She sat out the floor routine in the final after a poor qualifying previous routine, when she appeared to lose her awareness in the air on her double tuck, doing only a full tuck and rolling backward out of bounds.

16-year-old Rivera, the squad’s only newcomer, did not compete in Tuesday’s final. Despite that, she will still receive the gold medal for her efforts in the qualifying round. 

Biles reiterated that she considered Paris to be a “redemption tour” for the Tokyo returners.

“I feel like we all have more to give and our Tokyo performances weren’t the best,” Biles said at the Olympic trials in Minneapolis. “We weren’t under the best circumstances, either, but I feel like we have a lot of weight on our shoulders to go out there and prove that we’re better athletes.”

Two Olympic-all around champions will go head-to-head in the all-around final for the first time on Thursday, with Biles and Lee set to compete for the gold.