Simone Biles and the U.S. women's gymnastics team are competing in the team final right now now at the 2024 Paris Olympics . Biles and her teammates Suni Lee , Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera are heavy favorites to win gold , a dominant qualifying again showing how far ahead they are of their competitors.
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The U.S. has a lead of almost 1.5 points after the first rotation — and it's a lead they're not expected to relinquish the rest of the night. The Americans had the benefit of starting out on vault, where most teams will likely see the highest scores. But even with that context, their start was impressive. In addition to Biles' score of 14.900, Jade Carey also landed a Cheng for a similar score of 14.800 and Jordan Chiles got the group started with a terrific 14.400. The U.S. will now move on to uneven bars, where Chiles and Biles will be joined by Suni Lee, who specializes in this event.
Simone Biles didn't do her signature Yurchenko double pike , opting for the second-hardest difficult vault being done these days. Biles scored a 14.9 for her Cheng, which included a small hop on the landing. She smiled and exchanged high fives with coach Laurent Landi and then Cecile Landi, who is both Biles' co-coach and coach of the U.S. women here in Paris.
That Biles opted for the "easier" vault isn't a surprise. First, the U.S. doesn't need it. Though the Yurchenko double pick is worth 0.8 points more than the Cheng, the Americans finished five points ahead of everyone in qualifying. And they still posted 44.1 points on the rotation tonight. Second, Biles tweaked her left calf in qualifying. There's no reason to push it.
Simone Biles is walking normally but has a wrap that covers almost her entire left calf. Remember, she tweaked the left calf on floor exercise warmups during qualifying, and briefly left the floor before returning and getting her ankle heavily taped. She remained in the competition and showed no ill effects, posting the highest individual score. Coach Cecile Landi said afterward it was a flareup of an injury that occurred several weeks earlier, but that it wasn't a cause for concern.
The U.S. opens the team final with a bang: On vault, where Simone Biles did the Cheng. The Americans then move to uneven bars and balance beam before wrapping up on floor exercise — another one of Biles' specialties. Biles and World Champions Centre teammate Jordan Chiles, who was unlucky to miss out on the individual all-around final, will each compete on all four apparatuses, while Suni Lee will have three events and Jade Carey will vault. Here's the complete run-of-show for the U.S. women:
- Vault: Jordan Chiles (14.400), Jade Carey (14.800) and Simone Biles (14.900)
- Uneven bars: Jordan Chiles, Simone Biles and Suni Lee
- Balance beam: Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee and Simone Biles
- Floor exercise: Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles and Simone Biles
She is married to NFL player Jonathan Owens , who is in the arena, sitting with Biles' parents and wearing a T-shirt with "BILES" on it and a huge photo of his wife in action on it. He landed in Paris on Tuesday morning. In addition to the team final, Owens will be able to watch Biles in the all-around final on Thursday, Aug. 1.
During the first rotation, Owens was seen with a pen in hand, possibly recording scores, as Biles performed her vault routine. Mic’ed up on NBC’s broadcast, Owens let out a healthy “let’s go!” after Biles recorded a 14.900 on the vault, the highest score among the three U.S. gymnasts.
How does Olympic gymnastics scoring work?
A gymnastics routine gets two scores: One for difficulty, also known as the D score or start value, and one for execution. Every gymnastics skill has a numerical value, and the D score is the sum total of the skills in a routine. The execution score, or E score, reflects how well the skills were done. A gymnast starts with a 10.0, and deductions for flaws and form errors are taken from there. Add the D and E scores together, and that’s your total for an apparatus. (Vault scores will always be higher because it’s a single skill.)
Simone Biles, U.S. women get huge welcome from crowd
The teams are being introduced to the crowd, Simone Biles and the U.S. women receiving the biggest of all from the crowd. Biles forgot they were supposed to pose and started walking onto the floor before catching herself. Her and Jade Cade were cracking up.
Retired U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps, tennis superstar Serena Williams and actress Natalie Portman are among the A-list stars on hand in Bercy Arena to see what is expected to be a gold medal victory for Simone Biles and Team USA. Biles' husband, Jonathan Owens, is also in the arena after flying to Paris overnight. The Chicago Bears allowed the safety to leave training camp temporarily to see Biles compete at the Olympics.
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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
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.
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
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.
The 2024 Paris Olympics are Simone Biles ' third Olympic Games.
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."
Simone Biles’ husband is Jonathan Owens , a safety for the Chicago Bears .
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 USA TODAY: Olympic gymnastics live updates: Simone Biles, USA results and scores from team final
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