Although there were a few nervous moments during Sunday’s qualifying round, the U.S. women’s gymnastics team is the clear favorite to win gold going into the team final.
After the second of five subdivisions, Simone Biles, who was accompanied by Suni Lee, emerged victorious in the overall rankings and earned a spot in the floor, vault, and beam apparatus finals.
When Biles and Lee compete for gold on Thursday, it will be the first time that two Olympic all-around winners will face off in the all-around final.
Biles looked like she had a hard fall during floor warmups, which put her chances of making it to Paris in jeopardy.
After the competition, Biles’ coach, Cecile Landi, stated that although she “felt a little pain in her calf,” she never thought about withdrawing.
According to Landi, Biles was experiencing discomfort from the apparent injury during training a few weeks ago, but everything had improved before today’s flare-up. She expects to compete as scheduled for the remainder of the Games despite having medical personnel wrap her ankle.
Starting on the balance beam, where adrenaline can make it difficult to stay on the 4-inch apparatus, was a daunting job for the American ladies. Despite a few glitches, they performed their jobs, and Biles led the American beam team with one of her finest routines to date. With an incredible 14.733, she will compete with Lee in the beam finals.
The most difficult moment for Team USA occurred during the second cycle when Jade Carey, the current Olympic floor champion, mishandled her final tumbling pass. During her double tuck, she seemed to become disoriented in midair, completing only a full tuck before tumbling backward and out of bounds.
Carey’s floor score of 10.633 will keep her from defending her title.
Carey posted on X after the competition, stating that she “hasn’t been feeling the best” while in Paris.
Brian, her father and coach, missed Thursday’s podium practice because, according to USA Gymnastics, he wasn’t feeling well. For the qualifying round today, he made a comeback.
She was redeemed on the next occasion.
Carey’s vault score in the final was 14.433, using a Cheng and a double-twisting Yurchenko, which she can upgrade to an Amanar (2.5 twists). Carey and Biles will compete for an Olympic vault medal. Biles is the one who executed her eponymous Yurchenko double pike, or “Biles II” vault flawlessly.
Team USA’s technical lead coach, Chellsie Memmel, described the group’s tenacity as “I think they rallied together.” “I believe that demonstrates the strength of their team spirit because they came together, turned the page after a setback, and supported one another,”
In bars, where she currently has the bronze medal from the Olympics, Lee earned her spot in the all-around final. Lee won it by less than a tenth, but it was a tall order for her to overcome Jordan Chiles with a 14.800. She chose a little safer route, eliminating a challenging connection to score a 14.866. That also guaranteed her a spot in the bars final.
Chiles, like Gabby Douglas and Jordyn Wieber before her, was left in the unenviable situation of being the third-best gymnast on the world’s most successful women’s gymnastics team. Due to the two-gymnast-per-country rule, Chiles will not progress to the all-around finals even though she finished third in the all-around rankings following the second divisional.
It was not as though she gave up easily.
Chiles made a spectacular comeback to the Olympics, excelling in all four events — a far cry from her disappointing qualifying result in Tokyo. Biles, who is also Chiles’ training partner, is about to join her in the floor final. In the event at the 2022 World Championships, she took home a silver medal.
Not only is Hezly Rivera, 16, the youngest member of the squad USA delegation, but she is also the youngest member of the U.S. gymnastics squad. Rivera will be happy with her 13.900 on the bars, even though she struggled with nerves during her Olympic debut and didn’t reach her full ability.
In the team final on Tuesday, the American women’s gymnastics team will compete for a gold medal.