Simone Biles made a successful return to the women’s gymnastics team final at the Paris Games on Tuesday, captivating fans at the Bercy Arena in Paris and watching around the globe with her stunning routines to earn her fifth Olympic gold medal. It was poetry in action.
With stunning performances on all four apparatus, Biles—the most decorated gymnast in history—earned the United States its fourth Olympic gold in the women’s team event.
The American gymnast has been on what she called a “redemption tour” at the Paris Games after shocking the world by abruptly withdrawing from the team final in Tokyo due to a condition known as the “twisties,” which causes gymnasts to momentarily lose their sense of spatial awareness while performing extremely difficult elements.
“I felt calm and ready after starting therapy this morning,” the 27-year-old said to a packed press conference at the Bercy Arena.
“I knew we were going to do this right away when I landed on the vault.”
The French team did not make it to the final, so the fans supported Biles and her teammates instead. The United States finished with a score of 171.296, an amazing 5.802 points ahead of second-placed Italy.
Rebeca Andrade’s amazing, sky-high vault enabled Brazil to win the bronze, their first-ever medal in the competition. Britain came in fourth.
Biles stated that it was premature to consider her legacy and expressed surprise when a reporter informed her that she had already amassed an incredible 38 medals from the Olympics and world competition combined.
“All that matters to me is doing what I love and enjoying it,” the woman uttered.
Yes, it’s incredible, but I don’t think I’ll fully get it until I give up playing the sport.
Biles, who was competing with her left calf taped after suffering a muscle strain during Sunday’s qualifying competition, started her bid for the first of a possible five gold medals in Paris on the vault.
She powered down the runway before soaring high into the air while executing the Cheng vault to earn 14.900 points.
She then glided through her uneven bars routine with ease to the delight of the 15,000 fans packed into Bercy Arena, who serenaded her with chants of “USA! USA! USA!”. She was awarded 14.400.
Biles moved through her action-packed beam routine with panache, with her only blip being a slight break on a free cartwheel.
Biles, who finished last on the floor, radiated confidence as she performed her gravity-defying tumbling passes in front of a rapt audience. Her 14.666 points sealed the US victory and set forth wild jubilation across the arena.
With thousands of spectators in the stadium reaching for their cell phones to record the event, the victorious American quintet—which included Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera—rushed onto the floor with a large American flag after Biles’ final score went up on the giant screen.
One of Biles’s closest friends and fellow member of the US team that won silver in Tokyo, Jordan Chiles, remarked, “You can clearly see that she’s a different person from Tokyo than she is now.”
The sole true error made by Biles that evening occurred prior to the competition. Donning a white Team USA tracksuit, she seemed entirely preoccupied with the task at hand; rather than waiting for venue announcers to introduce the team, she came out of the tunnel and made her way straight to the team’s bench.
When her name was called, the audience erupted in a loud roar, stopping Simone Biles in her tracks. She then took a few steps back and grinned broadly.
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