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    Columbus native Simone Biles, USA women win gold medal in 2024 Olympics team final

    By Nancy Armour and Tom Schad, USA TODAY,

    15 hours ago

    https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0WqgVw_0ui96UYe00

    Simone Biles and the U.S. women's gymnastics team captured gold in the team final today at the 2024 Paris Olympics . Biles and her teammates Suni Lee , Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera were heavy favorites to win gold , and got the U.S. back on the Olympic team podium for the first time since 2016. With the gold medal, Biles now has five Olympic gold medals and eight total, the highest total for an American gymnast ever.

    USA TODAY Sports brought you live results, scores and highlights throughout the team final. Check out the highlights.

    Simone Biles now has more Olympic medals than any other American gymnast ever

    Simone Biles and the U.S. women's gymnastics team winning gold in the team final gives Biles more Olympic medals than any other American gymnast. She has eight Olympics medals in three Games, breaking the tie she had with Shannon Miller . Biles already held the record for most golds by an American gymnast, having won four at the Rio Olympics. She also a silver and two bronzes from Rio and Tokyo.

    Simone Biles' floor routine

    Simone Biles closed out the entire Olympic women's gymnatics team final on floor and got a standing ovation from the crowd. She scored a 14.666.

    Jordan Chiles dazzles on floor

    Jordan Chiles went second in the final rotation for the Ameicans and sent the crowd into a frenzy with her performance. She scored a 13.966.

    Suni Lee's floor score

    Suni Lee opened the final rotation for the U.S. women's gymnastics team, putting up a 13.533 on floor.

    Simone Biles' beam score extends Americans' lead

    Team USA is one step closer to a third Olympic gold medal in four tries after Simone Biles managed to maintain her focus on beam. Biles appeared to almost lose her balance on a wolf turn, then did lose her balance on an aerial, clinging to the edge of the beam with her toes. But she didn't let the wobble turn into a fall, and ultimately, her score of 14.366 will still be one of the higher marks of the night. The U.S. now has a 3.6-point advantage over Italy, which is currently in silver medal position. And Great Britain now has the inside track on bronze.

    Simone Biles' moves named after her: What to know

    Simone Biles has left her mark on the sport of gymnastics. In addition to her record number of medals — she has 37 at the world championships and Olympics, more than any other gymnast, male or female — Biles has five skills named after her. Skills are named after the first gymnast to do them in a major international competition, like the world championships or Olympics. She has two on vault, two on floor exercise and one on balance beam. Here’s are the Simone Biles moves named after her . — Nancy Armour

    Simone Biles' Yurchenko double pike: What to know

    The Biles II is also known as the Yurchenko double pike , one of five moves named after Simone Biles . Vaults are categorized by “families,” which are based on the entry. On Yurchenko vaults, a gymnast does a roundoff onto the takeoff board and a back handspring onto the table. Biles then follows it with a double somersault in the piked position.

    Few men even try this vault, which is so difficult because of the power it takes to get two somersaults as well as its lack of a bailout. If something goes awry, more likely to land on her head or neck than her knees.

    Biles began doing this vault in 2021 but didn’t do it at a worlds or Olympics until the 2023 world championships. With a 6.4 difficulty value, it is the hardest vault in the women’s code.

    When Biles did the vault last year, she took a half-point deduction for having coach Laurent Landi standing on the landing mat, ready to step in and redirect her into a safe position if it looked as if she was headed for a scary landing. But neither Biles nor Landi feel the need for him to do that anymore.

    The most difficult vault commonly executed by other gymnasts is valued at 5.6, eight-tenths lower than the Biles II, so doing it gives Biles a huge scoring advantage.

    Is Simone Biles the greatest gymnast of all time?

    Biles is the greatest gymnast of all time . She has consistently dominated the sport for over a decade, which would have been an unimaginable feat just a few years ago as most gymnasts reach their peak in their late teens. Her ability to win is in a class of its own. With 37 Olympic and world championship medals — 27 of which are gold — Biles has won the most of any gymnast in history. She has also not lost an all-around competition since 2013.

    Biles redefines the possibilities of her sport not just in her record-breaking number of wins and medals, but also in the unmatched difficulty of the skills she completes. Biles has no less than five skills named after her — two on the vault and floor and one on the balance beam — because she was the first, and in most cases, the only athlete to complete them in competition.

    How many Olympic medals does Simone Biles have?

    Biles has won seven Olympic medals , four of which are gold. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Biles won three individual golds in the all-around, vault and floor exercise and led Team USA’s “Final Five” to the team gold. She also added a bronze medal on the balance beam. At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Biles added a silver medal in the team event and an additional bronze medal in the balance beam to her hardware collection.

    How many Olympics has Simone Biles been to?

    The 2024 Paris Olympics are Simone Biles ' third Olympic Games.

    Where Simone Biles trains and what it's like to train with her

    Simone Biles trains at Champions Centre World, which is owned by Biles’ parents Nellie and Ron, and is just outside Houston, has become one of the premier gyms in the country. WCC has two gymnasts on the five-woman US team at the 2024 Paris Olympics , Biles and Jordan Chiles, with Joscelyn Roberson a traveling alternate and Tiana Sumanasekera a non-traveling alternate. It also sent the most gymnasts, five, to the Olympic trials, and had three more at the US championships .

    "Training with Simone is, like, once in a lifetime," said Roberson, who moved to WCC after the US championships in 2022 . "She's always so bubbly in the gym. Plus, she can hit. All the time. Like, she never has a bad day, which is insane to me."

    How Simone Biles, US Olympic women's gymnastics shattered age stereotype

    Simone Biles, 27, is seeking to become the oldest all-around Olympic champion in women's gymnastics in 72 years, and she is one of four athletes on the U.S. team who fit what used to be a rare mold, as repeat Olympians in their 20s. The other three − Jade Carey (24), Jordan Chiles (23) and Suni Lee (21) − all competed in college between their two Olympic appearances, which also used to be uncommon. ( Hezly Rivera , 16, rounds out the team.)

    With an average age north of 22 years old, it will be the oldest U.S. women's gymnastics team to compete at the Olympics since 1952, according to USA Gymnastics.

    "The longevity of this sport has been totally changed. Simone has changed that," Chiles said . not to control everything that I can’t control anymore,” Biles said.

    This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus native Simone Biles, USA women win gold medal in 2024 Olympics team final

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