It wasn’t a gold medal sweep for Simone Biles in Paris. It wasn’t even a medal sweep.
The superstar gymnast from Springs, Texas, told a story of perseverance and resilience with her performance at the 2024 Olympic Games, while also embodying the trials and tribulations of the pursuit of greatness with four more medals — three gold — over the past eight days.
It remains to be seen whether Biles plans to compete for a fourth Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028, but the 27-year-old was adamant when asked what remains for her to do.
“Nothing, just relax,” she joked with a smile on the Peacock broadcast Monday after winning silver in one of the final two events for her 11th career medal.
After looking dominant early in the match, Biles stumbled a bit at the finish line on Monday.
The 4ft 8in athlete fell during her balance beam routine, the day’s first event, missing out on the podium for the first time at the Bercy Arena.
With a score of 13.100, Biles missed a chance to tie Russia’s Larisa Latynina for the all-time Olympic gold medal by a U.S. female gymnast at this event.
Biles’ fall created an opportunity for Italy’s Alice D’Amato, who won 14.366 points to win Italy’s first Olympic women’s gymnastics gold medal.
2024 Paris Olympics
China’s Zhou Yaqin won the silver medal (14.366), while Italy’s Manila Esposito took the bronze medal (14.000).
Biles became the fourth skater to fall from the balance beam in the event on Monday, and as such incidents continue to occur, it appears to be causing stress for each skater.
Fellow American Suni Lee, who had publicly declared she wanted to win the balance beam event, also dropped down the rankings, finishing in a tie for fifth place with the same score as Biles.
“I was really sad about my balance beam performance,” Lee said afterward, “but I gave it my all so it’s OK.”
But to close out her Paris appearance, Biles returned to the podium with a silver medal in the floor exercise final.
Despite some trouble in her warm-up, after going out of bounds twice, Biles scored 14.133 points, but it was not enough to beat Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, who won her first gold medal of the tournament and her second gold medal of her career with 14.166 points.
“I have a lot of respect for her,” Biles said of Andrade, who had been close to her in every competition leading up to this one. “She always makes me nervous, so it’s always an honor to compete against her.”
American Jordan Childs finished sixth, but then the U.S. national team issued an investigation to correct her score, which was accepted and the 23-year-old Childs moved onto the podium for the bronze medal.
Childs’ lead performance was regraded from a C starting rating to a D, improving from 13.666 to 13.766.
As the scores were reviewed, Romania’s Ana Barbos, thinking she had won the bronze medal, began celebrating by waving her flag aloft. She looked up in disbelief, then dropped the flag after the score change when she realized Chile had overtaken her.
Childs, Biles and the rest of the U.S. team jumped in celebration as it was Childs’ first individual medal of her Olympic career.
“This is truly a dream come true,” Chiles said on the Peacock broadcast. “It’s my first time competing in an event final. Like I said before, this is a revenge tour, so I just wanted to go out there and do my best, so this medal means everything to me.”
“My first event final, my first event medal. Oh my God, I’m speechless, I’m so proud.”
Biles and Chiles took a knee in honour of Andrade during the medal ceremony, a fitting moment for Brazil’s most decorated Olympian in history.
Still, this marks just the third time in the last five Olympics that USA Gymnastics has won double-digit medals (10).
If this is the end of the Biles era, the most decorated American gymnast will have left a lasting mark on the world of gymnastics with 41 World Championship and Olympic medals.
