The U.S. women’s gymnastics team once again won the gold in the Olympics thanks in no small part to Simone Biles. Italy won silver in the artistic gymnastics team final, and Brazil won bronze, marking the country’s first-ever medal in this event.
The event was broken down into rotations on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam and the floor. Jordan Chiles was the first to get the United States on the board with a 14.400 on the vault. She was then followed by Jade Carey. Despite the fact Carey was sick this week, she scored a 14.800.
Simone Biles then scored an impressive 14.900 during her vault for the U.S. team’s women’s final on Tuesday. That score was from a routine that had a difficulty 5.6 and an execution of 9.3. The beloved athlete stuck the landing with no sign of pain on her left leg, an injury that has been closely watched since Biles reported pain in her calf during Sunday’s qualifying competition.
On the uneven bars — known as Biles’ weakest event — the gymnast scored a 14.400. Chiles scored a 14.366 on the uneven bars with a difficulty of 6.000 and an execution 8.366. Sunisa “Suni” Lee, who won bronze for uneven bars during the Tokyo Olympics and has emerged as a fan favorite, scored 14.566 — the best of the three Americans. That notable performance came after Lee fell from the uneven bars during warmups.
Next up were the balance beam routines. Chiles took the beam first and fell, which resulted in a one point deduction. Her final score was 12.733. Lee scored 14.600 after a strong beam performance. Biles’ ended the U.S.’s performance on the balance beam with a score 14.366.
The final event was floor. Lee started the rotation for the U.S. and scored a 13.533. She was followed by Chiles, who performed a routine with snippets of music from Beyonce and Destiny’s Child and scored a 13.966. Not only was Biles the last floor performance for the United States; she was also the last gymnast scheduled to perform her floor routine, period. During a routine that features music from Taylor Swift, Biles scored 14.666, clinching the gold for Team USA.
Though she failed to make the finals in any individual gymnastics event, Hezly Rivera is also part of Team USA. Her overall performance on bars helped the team advance to the finals.
Altogether, Team USA earned a combined point total of 171.296 for the artistic gymnastics team final. Previously, Team USA won gold in back-to-back Olympics in London in Rio. However, during Tokyo, a competition Biles stepped away from, the team took home silver.
There were no shortage of celebrities in the crowd to cheer on this historic team. Nicole Kidman, Hoda Hotb, Savannah Guthrie, Keith Urban, Spike Lee, Bill Gates and Serena Williams were all spotted cheering for Team USA.
The event didn’t just mark a major victory for the United States. As previously mentioned, this marked the first time Brazil has ever medaled in the event. Italy’s silver medal also marked the first time the country has medaled in this event since 1928.
This victory also marks the second major gymnastics win for Team USA at Paris 2024. The U.S. men’s gymnastics team previously won bronze at the Paris 2024 Olympics, a team that hasn’t medaled since 2008. That team was composed of Asher Hong, Paul Juda, Brody Malone, Stephen Nedoroscik and Frederick Richard.
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