Simone Biles joked that she couldn’t handle the heat anymore. Rebeca Andrade was getting too close to her.
Now the Brazilian star has surpassed her.
Biles stepped out of bounds with both feet on two of her four tumbling passes during the Paris Olympic floor exercise final Monday, finishing behind Andrade with a silver medal.
The U.S. star absorbed six-tenths of a point in neutral deductions for her landings, finishing 0.033 points behind Andrade, who claimed the second Olympic gold medal of her career and her first Olympic victory over Biles.
UCLA’s Jordan Chiles took the bronze on floor, scoring a 13.766 that moved her onto the podium after an inquiry changed her score by one-tenth. After her new score flashed on the screen, Chiles wept in her coach Cecile Landi's arms. It was her first individual Olympic medal.
The medal on floor helped Biles rebound from a shocking fall during the beam final that kept her off the podium for the first time in her Olympic final career. She finished fifth, making teammate Suni Lee’s score of 13.100 after both fell off the apparatus.
The beam final felt cursed from the start when top qualifier Zhao Yaqin wobbled on the last element of a tricky triple series and grabbed the beam for support. Three of the next four competitors fell, including Lee, who slipped suddenly on her triple acrobatic series and slammed to the mat. Even Italy’s Manila Esposito, who stayed on the beam, had a major form break.
It wasn't until the sixth finalist that a clean routine emerged, with Alice D’Amato of Italy working through a clean routine to take the gold medal. The 21-year-old won Italy's first Olympic gold medal in gymnastics and, along with Esposito’s bronze medal, brought home the country's first beam medals. Zhao took silver.
Four of the eight beam competitors fell, followed by a disastrous men’s high bar final that included six of eight competitors falling. It was the final day of the tense and tiring artistic gymnastics competition.
Making it to the last day is already hard enough, said Lee, who competed five times during the past 10 days. Then arena operations layered on the stress by keeping the atmosphere almost completely silent while gymnasts were competing.
There were no thumping techno beats in the background while the gymnasts were on the equipment. Lee grew so self-conscious that she felt people could hear her breathing.
When other gymnasts tried to cut the silence by cheering during the beam final, the crowd shushed loudly. After Biles dismounted the beam, clearly frustrated with her performance after falling on the second element of a planned triple series, she asked Lee why the crowd was shushing her during her routine.
“We didn't like that just because it's just so silent in there,” Lee said. “I love hearing my teammates cheer for me.”
Lee finished the Olympics with three medals — a gold in the team event and individual bronzes in the all-around and uneven bars to increase her career Olympic medal haul to six.
Lee and Biles tried to hide their frustration on the sideline with giggles about how annoyed they were with the final circumstances, but Lee still mustered a genuine smile.
“This Olympics, I'm really proud of the way that I was able to handle the pressure,” Lee said. “I mean, obviously not today, but every other day, I feel like I did pretty well. And all the medals means something super special to me.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .
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