How did Simone Biles do Sunday? US has early lead in team all-around

Admin July 28, 2024

Simone Biles, one of the greatest gymnasts of all time, is among the favorites to win the women’s all-around competition – she has not lost one since 2013 – as well as the floor exercise, vault and balance beam events.

However, an apparent lower leg injury she sustained in warmups on Sunday could complicate those plans.

Biles began her quest to add to her Olympic medal collection as part of Team USA’s all-around. She is joined on the team by reigning Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera. Lee, Chiles and Carey all won medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The 16-year-old Rivera is the 2023 U.S. junior champion.

After an excellent initial performance on the beam, Biles appeared to tweak something in her lower leg as she did a tumbling run while warming up for the floor exercise. After getting her ankle taped, Biles gutted her way through the floor, vault and uneven bars events to lead Team USA to the top spot in the early going.

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Gymnastics team all-around qualification results

With two of the five subdivisions complete, the United States – with a total of 172.296 points – has a comfortable lead over Italy, China and Great Britain.

The qualification round also determined which gymnasts from the U.S. advance to the individual all-around competition, as well as the other individual events.

Biles, obviously, was Team USA’s top all-around qualifier with a total of 59.566 points on the four disciplines. The second spot came down to the last competitor in the last event, the uneven bars. Lee edged Chiles by 0.067.

So for the first time ever, one country will have two Olympic all-around champions competing against each other in an Olympic final.

Which US gymnasts will compete in individual event finals?

In addition to Biles and Lee in the all-around, the U.S. is in good position to have the maximum of two gymnasts in each of the individual events.

Here are the top-scoring American women in qualifying:

All-around: Simone Biles, Suni Lee
Vault: Simone Biles, Jade Carey
Bars: Suni Lee, Simone Biles*
Beam: Simone Biles, Suni Lee
Floor: Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles

(*-Biles is eighth on bars through two subdivisions, so she could be overtaken later in the day.)

How did Simone Biles do on Sunday?

Simone Biles opened her Paris Olympics by closing out the balance beam rotation for the U.S., and she absolutely crushed it by scoring 14.733.

Biles completed her floor routine — which included two skills named after her — with a taped left ankle after leaving briefly with team doctor, Dr. Marcia Faustin, before her rotation. If Biles was hurting, it didn’t affect her gymnastics. She delivered the highest-scoring routine on floor exercise so far (14.600).

Cecile Landi, one of Biles’ coaches, said after Sunday’s qualifying session that Biles’ left calf that was bothering her, but added, “she felt better at the end.”

In the vault, Biles did her signature Yurchenko double pike, a move so difficult few men even do it, and scored 15.800.

She finished with only a slight mistake on uneven bars, where she wobbled briefly on a handstand. “Yeah,” Biles quipped after her score, a 14.433, posted. “That’s good.”

When are gymnastics team finals at Olympics?

The men’s team final is Monday, July 29, at 11:30 a.m. ET (5:30 p.m. Paris time). The women’s team final follows on Tuesday, July 30, at 12:15 p.m. ET (at 6:15 p.m. Paris time).

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