After racking up three straight gold medals in the Team Final, Women's Individual All-Around, and Vault Final, Simone Biles' dominant streak at the 2024 Paris Olympics came to end on August 5.
Biles placed fifth in the Balance Beam Final after falling off the apparatus. Save for the uneven bars, her "weakest" event, with a 13.100 score on beam, this marked the first time Biles' illustrious career that she qualified for a final and did not medal.
The two-time Olympic all-around champion's final event in Paris was the Floor Exercise Final. The 27-year-old seemed to be shoe-in for gold due to her routine having highest difficulty level. Last week, she finished first in the qualifying round with a 14.600, well over Brazil's Rebeca Andrade score of 13.900.
During the final, Biles went out of bounds on two of her tumbling passes and scored a 14.133, opening the door for Andrade win gold with a 14.166. However, a few stumbles at the end of an extraordinary redemption run in Paris doesn't change her status as the best gymnast in the world, and she knows it.
Biles, who extended her record as the most decorated gymnast in U.S. history with an 11th medal after winning silver on floor, offered a candid response on her performances.
"Today has been absolutely wild," Biles told reporters. "I've been out on that floor so many times competing, so obviously exhaustion and all of that sets in, but we still had to go out and compete one more time today. And it's such an honor to compete with these girls on both the beam and on the floor."
"At the end of the day, whoever medaled, medaled, and that's what's so exciting, because you just never know with gymnastics," she continued. "I'm not very upset or anything about my performance at the Olympics. I'm actually very happy, proud and even more excited that it's over, the stress of it."
During the final podium ceremony, Biles, and Team USA's Jordan Chiles, who won bronze on floor, bowed down to Andrade. After the moment viral, Chiles and Biles spoke out on their iconic show of respect.
"Rebeca, she's so amazing, she's queen," Biles said. "It was just the right thing to do."
Chiles added, “Why don't we just give her her flowers? Not only has she given Simone her flowers, but a lot of us in the United States, our flowers as well. So giving it back is what makes it so beautiful. So I felt like it was needed."
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