Biles’s Small Slip Stalls Medal Run in Paris Olympics
After winning three gold medals in her first three events at the Paris Games, Simone Biles was expected to add to that haul on Monday by finishing in the top three on the balance beam — an event she earned bronze on in the Tokyo and Rio Games.
But after falling during her routine — as many other gymnasts did, too — Biles ended up in fifth. When her score, 13.1, popped up on the leaderboard, she looked furious.
Alice D’Amato of Italy won the gold medal, with 14.366 points, and Zhou Yaqin of China won the silver, with 14.1 points. Another Italian, Manila Esposito, won the bronze, with 14.0 points.
Of the eight gymnasts competing, four fell off the beam, including Sunisa Lee, the other American in the event, who finished sixth. Zhou lost her balance and had to grab the beam to steady herself, miscalculating one of the easier skills in an otherwise stellar routine.
Lee, the Olympic all-around champion in Tokyo, fell off the beam during a challenging tumbling series, landing on the beam smack between her legs before tumbling to the ground. That was her last chance to win another medal at these Games. She did not qualify for the final event, the floor exercise.
Lee said that the atmosphere in the arena, where the fans were silent during the beam routines and even shushed gymnasts who were cheering for their teammates, contributed to the pressure she felt on the apparatus.
“It was just crazy to kind of see how everybody was going down like that,” Lee said. “I think it’s just because there’s just so much pressure, you could feel the tension in the room.”
She added: “When I was up there, I was like, people can probably hear me breathing. It adds to the stresses because it’s like, yes, you’re the only one up there, but it just makes you feel like you’re the only one up there.”
But these Games can be considered a success for her, after she was diagnosed with two kidney diseases less than two years ago. Lee helped the United States win the team gold medal and she also won bronze medals in the all-around and the uneven bars.
Biles, of course, has had an extraordinary Olympics so far — until her fall on the beam, which happened on a back layout.
Having already won three gold medals in the last week — in the team event, the all-around and the vault — Biles has three gold medals at this Olympics and 10 Olympic medals overall. She came into these Games as the most decorated gymnast of all time, and may add yet another medal in the floor exercise.
Biles, 27, has said she would love to compete at a home Olympics in 2028, when the Summer Games are staged in Los Angeles, but she also said that training for another four years would be difficult on both her body and mind.
Jenny Vrentas contributed reporting.
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