Simone Biles back on top as USA gymnastics captures gold in Olympics team final

Simone Biles dubbed this the “redemption tour” for the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, and the sport’s most decorated star of all-time delivered an electrifying bounce-back performance Tuesday in Paris.

Biles fronted the American squad to its third all-around team gold medal in the past four Olympics — finishing it off with a typically stellar and acrobatic floor exercise routine — to rebound from a disappointing showing four years ago in Tokyo.

The U.S. squad took home silver in 2020, with Biles withdrawing mid-competition due to a bout with the twisties and making the decision to take care of her mental and physical health.

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Biles also suffered a minor calf injury in Sunday’s qualifying round, but she participated in all four events Tuesday to lead returning 2020 teammates Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey and 16-year-old newcomer Hezly Rivera back to the podium.

Italy won the silver medal and Brazil took the bronze, with the Americans outdistancing the field by 5.802 points.

With luminaries such as Serena Williams, Michael Phelps and Spike Lee in attendance, it marked the fifth career Olympic gold medal for the 27-year-old Biles — along with one silver and two bronze — ahead of the individual events later this week. Her eight Olympic medals are the most for any American gymnast, one more than Shannon Miller (1992, 1996).

Competing in her third consecutive Olympics, Biles also was a member of the gold-medal squad in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016. The American women previously had won the top prize in 1996 in Atlanta and 2012 in London.

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The podium finish also brought Biles’ combined medal count in Olympic events and world championships to 38, the most ever for any gymnast.

Biles, the oldest gymnast on an American women’s team since 35-year-old Marie Margaret Hoesly in 1952, and Chiles were the only members of the squad to compete in all four events: vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise.

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Scores from qualifying did not carry over to the finals, but the U.S. won the qualifying round by a convincing margin of 5.435 points. Three gymnasts from every team competed in each event, with all three scores counting towards the team’s tally.

The 21-year-old Lee, who took home the individual all-around gold medal in 2020 in Tokyo, competed in three of the four events, all but the vault apparatus. Rivera, the lone first-timer, did not participate Tuesday, but she earned her first gold medal by taking part in the qualifying round.

Chiles and Carey — in her lone event of the night — joined Biles in competing in the vault. Biles earned a 14.90 score with a slight hop on the landing of her Cheng vault, which is a round-off onto the springboard with a half-twist onto the table and two two full twists. Carey attempted the same vault and received slightly less (14.80), while Chiles recorded a 14.40. Biles had nailed a Yerchenko double pike — with a higher degree of difficulty — in the qualifying round.

Chiles stuck her landing and scored a solid 14.366 to lead off the uneven bars round. Biles followed with another well-executed routine for a 14.400 before Lee bested both of them at 14.566.

The same trio was deployed on both the balance beam and floor exercise.

Chiles fell from the beam after a flip on her initial mount and scored only 12.733. But Lee followed with a stellar 14.600 before Biles contributed a 14.366 to get the team back on track entering the final rotation.

Lee went first and earned a 13.533 for her routine on floor exercise, before Chiles crushed her tumbling passes for a 13.966 to set the stage for Biles to clinch the gold.

Biles stepped out of bounds on one of her passes, but she received a 14.666 to seal the deal for the Americans.

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