The drama of the last day reflects the emotional ups and downs of the U.S. women’s team.
The last day of gymnastics competition didn’t go quite the way Team USA gymnasts were hoping. With two U.S. women competing in the balance beam and two on the floor exercise finals, they expected at least two medals, if not three or four.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]But Simone Biles, who has executed clean routines throughout her previous four events in Paris—including a clutch beam program during qualification—had an uncharacteristic fall off the beam. Teammate Sunisa Lee fell as well, and the two finished in fifth and sixth, respectively. Italy’s Alice D’Amato earned her country’s first medal in the event, after helping her team win its first medal, a silver, in the team competition.
Biles and Lee weren’t alone; half of the eight women in the beam final came off the apparatus, reflecting the challenges of remaining in top mental and physical condition over eight days. Competing on the last day of gymnastics at the Olympics, Lee said, is “so hard. I’m so tired, I was telling everyone today, ‘I don’t know if I can do this beam final.’”
Lee said the environment in the packed arena during the beam competition was also unnerving. No music played on the building’s speakers, and the crowd of 10,000 fell almost completely silent, to the extent that when coaches and teammates tried to cheer the gymnasts on during their routines, the crowed shushed them. “It was a little too quiet in [there],” Lee said afterward. “When I was up there, I was like, people can probably hear me breathing and it just adds to the stress. And yes, you’re the only one up there, but it just [really] makes you feel like you’re the only one up there.”
Biles said the gymnasts had asked whether music could be played, since they are more accustomed to hearing noise rather than silence while competing. “Honestly we do better in environments when there is noise going on because it feels more like a practice,” Biles said. “Today we could hear some Android ring tones going off, and the photo clickers. People started cheering, and then the shushing got loud and really [the people shushing] should be shushed. It was weird and awkward. None of us liked it.”
Biles had another chance to close out the Paris Olympics on a stronger note, in the floor exercise final. She executed both of her namesake skills, but on her second and fourth tumbling runs, stepped out of bounds, costing her 0.6 points, which put her behind Brazil’s Rebecca Andrade. Had she stayed in bounds, Biles’ score would have been enough for gold.
Jordan Chiles, Team USA’s long time hype woman, closed out the floor exercise event and the gymnastics competition in Paris as the very last competitor. And she rose to the occasion. Continuing her streak of solid gymnastics under pressure, Chiles was cool and collected in performing a clean routine.
Then the drama began. Chiles’ initial score of 13.666 put her in fifth place, but her difficulty score, which credits gymnasts for the skills they perform, hadn’t been calculated properly. Her coaches submitted an inquiry and the judges acknowledged the error, giving Chiles another 0.1 point, which was enough to move her into third for the bronze.
“Today has been absolutely wild,” said Biles of the last day’s ups and downs.
It didn’t stop Biles and Chiles from acknowledging their fellow gymnast on the medals stand for the floor exercise. When Andrade was announced as the gold medalist, Biles and Chiles bowed to her, an acknowledgement of Andrade’s accomplishments and her impact on growing the sport in Brazil, which won its first team medal in Paris.
“First, it was an all-Black podium, so that was super exciting for us,” Biles said. “But then Jordan was like, ‘Should we bow to her?’ And I was like, ‘Absolutely.’ She is such an exciting gymnast to watch, and all the fans in the crowd [were] cheering for her. It was just the right thing to do. She’s a queen.”
“She’s an icon, a legend herself so why don’t we give her her flowers,” Chiles said of her idea. “Not only has she given Simone her flowers, but [she has] for a lot of us in the U.S. as well. Giving back is what makes it so beautiful. We felt it was needed.”
In some ways, the drama of the last day reflects the emotional ups and downs of the women’s team—each of whom has overcome their own challenges to compete in Paris. Biles withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics three years ago when she experienced the twisties, a condition partly related to stress, in which she lost her orientation in the air. “I never thought I’d step foot on the gymnastics floor again,” she said in Paris after the all-around event. Lee was diagnosed with two kidney conditions and was told she would never do gymnastics again, and Chiles was burned out and ready to give up the sport when Biles convinced her to train with her in Houston at her family’s gym before the Tokyo Olympics.
“This was definitely a redemption tour,” Biles said of the team’s four members who were also part of the Tokyo team and wanted to better their silver medal in the team event from those Games. “We have nothing left; we did our job.”
In the three years since, she has shared more about the pressure she felt leading up to the Tokyo Olympics, and what role that might have played in the twisties, a condition in which her mind and body weren’t in sync and made it dangerous for her to twist in the air.
She’s also talked about her commitment to weekly therapy sessions, and conversations with her therapist that have continued remotely in Paris despite the time zone difference. Her decision to withdraw from the Tokyo Olympics now serves as an example for all athletes who may be afraid to prioritize their well being, but Biles hopes more people beyond just athletes hear the message. “I think putting mental health first, and taking time for yourself whether you are in sports or not creates longevity in sports but also a better and healthier lifestyle,” she said. “It’s important to put mental health first and everything else then falls into place.”
That focus on the mental preparation and training required to compete at the elite level may be as important a legacy that Biles leaves to the sport than her gymnastics accomplishments. The entire women’s team entered Paris with a different mentality than they had during the previous Olympics. The word most of them gravitated to was “fun.”
“I feel like I have just been able to really have fun—getting to experience the [Olympic] Village, talking to other athletes because as a gymnast I don’t really keep up with other sports,” Lee said. “So seeing everyone here and then keeping up with them and seeing what they’re able to do has been super fun. It’s just so much better [at this Olympics]; we’re able to have a lot more fun.”
Lee wasn’t able to make the podium in balance beam after her foot slipped following her aerial series and she fell off the beam. She leaves Paris with three medals, giving her a total of six Olympic medals.
The U.S. gymnasts leave Paris with 10 medals; the men earned bronze in the team event, and Stephen Nedoroscik, who gained famed as the Pommel Horse Guy on social media, won bronze in the pommel horse event. Biles earned three golds in Paris—in the team event, the all-around competition, and in the vault final—as well as a silver in the floor exercise. Lee earned three medals—gold in the team event and a bronze in the all-around and in the uneven bars final. Carey goes home with a gold in the team event and a bronze in vault, while Chiles earned gold in the team and a bronze in the floor exercise.
With the next Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Biles would not commit to making a decision about whether she plans to train for another Games or not, but admitted “Never say never. The next Olympics is at home, so you just never know.” She also pleaded on social media for journalists to give athletes some grace. “You guys really gotta stop asking athletes what’s next after they win a medal at the Olympics,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Let us soak up the moment we’ve worked our whole lives for.”
Biles certainly earned it. But that won’t stop the world from wondering and waiting.
