Simone Biles and Team USA's gymnastics squad can finally leave 2021 in the past

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for rocking with us today.

Here’s your daily medal count as of 9:30 a.m. ET:

— United States: 27 (4 gold, 12 silver, 11 bronze)

— France: 20 ( 6 gold, 9 silver, 5 bronze)

— China: 16 ( 8 gold, 6 silver, 2 bronze)

— Great Britain: 16 (6 gold, 5 silver, 5 bronze)

— Japan: 13 (7 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze)

Redemption achieved

The 2021 Tokyo Olympics was a bit of a disaster for the women’s gymnastics team.

Simone Biles withdrew because of the twisties. The gymnastics team only won a silver medal, which would be great for everybody else, but was certainly not the expectation for that team.

All that is in the past now. If Simone Biles is the Captain America of the 2024 Games, then we can say 2021 has successfully been avenged. It doesn’t matter anymore because, once again, Biles, Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, and the rest of the squad have found themselves on that center podium with gold medals and American flags draped around them.

Not only did Team USA win, but it dominated. Biles and crew amassed a 171.296 score, which won gold by nearly six points — a pretty wide margin of victory.

Let’s put it this way: Italy came in second place but the distance between that team in Romania in seventh place is about the same between the U.S. in first place and Italy in second. It just wasn’t close.

What made this so special was everything this team persevered through. Biles’ twisties have been well documented, but it wasn’t guaranteed that the other team members would be here, either. Suni Lee has been battling against a rare kidney disease she was diagnosed with in 2023. Jordan Chiles nearly quit the team because of racism and she would’ve been well within her right to do so.

Now, they’ve done it. They’re forever etched into the annals of Olympics history as champions. Chiles’ floor routine can only be described as spectacular. Lee’s perfection on the balance needs to hang in the Louvre. Biles’ stunning performance in, basically, everything was breathtaking.

In the end, Team USA won yet another gold in team competition. And Simone Biles finally became the most decorated Olympian gymnast of all time.

It took a lot to get to this point finally but it was well worth the wait.

Appeal denied

The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canada Soccer’s appeal trying to stop FIFA from docking Canada’s women’s Olympic team six points after the team was caught using spy drones to eye other teams’ training sessions for years.

The CAS released a statement on the denial on Wednesday morning.

This is honestly pretty heartbreaking for the Canadian women’s soccer team. The six-point penalty is deserved, given the circumstances. But it was reportedly done without the players’ knowledge. They had nothing to do with it.

Now, they’ll almost certainly miss out on a chance to defend their gold medal. You hate to see it. But this is what happens when your federation decides to cheat to win.

A walk-off Rugby win

Imagine watching your favorite NFL team rattle off a 99-yard touchdown run on Sunday this fall to win the Super Bowl.

That’s basically what happened with the U.S. Women’s Rugby team on Tuesday. Alex “Spiff” Sedrick took it to the house against Australia in the waning seconds of the bronze medal rugby match to win the U.S. women’s team its first-ever medal in rugby sevens.

This is literally how it’s done in the storybooks, folks.

Gettin’ Spiffy with it.

What a moment.

Quick hits: Trade deadline winners and losers … The yucky Seine … and more

— Here are winners and losers from the MLB trade deadline, courtesy of Blake Schuster.

— Meg Hall has five photos of triathletes swimming in the Seine River and, boy, does it look awful.

— Here’s Michelle Martinelli with an awesome gallery of Team USA’s swimmers underwater. This is sick.

— Simone and Suni planned TikToks right after winning gold and immediately got to it. Robert Zeglinski has more.

— Prince Grimes says the Bears’ defense is what will put the team over the top this upcoming NFL season.

— Here’s Robert with the 10 best defensive tackles in NFL history.

That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading. I’ll be out on Thursday and Friday this week. Appreciate you hanging with us! Keep it locked on For The Win for more Olympic updates.

Peace.

-Sykes ✌️