“I just wanted to go out there for me.”Įven before Biles’s exit from the competition, this year’s Games had thrust concerns over the mental health of athletes to the fore. At a press conference after the competition, Biles reflected on her ordeal: “It’s been a very long week, a very long five years,” she said. That left Xijing with the silver and Biles with the bronze. Her score came in: 14.633-enough to take the gold.
Then the final competitor, Guan Chenchen, of China, delivered a stunning routine, nailing a notoriously difficult sequence of front flips. Several of the remaining athletes made uncharacteristic errors in their routines, and Biles held on to her silver-medal placement almost to the end. The beam is a testy and unpredictable event, in which an errant toe or a low shoulder can instantly dash the chances of a gold-medal favorite. But there were still five athletes left on the roster. Her score, a 14.0, put her temporarily in second place, behind Tang Xijing, of China. Upon landing, she raised her hand to her chest in visible relief. To avoid risking the twisties, she performed a modified dismount-a double back pike instead of a full- or double-twisting back tuck.
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When she mounted the beam, though, she looked like her old self, completing a triple wolf turn, a front aerial, and an acrobatic series in close succession. On NBC’s live broadcast, as the finalists prepared to make their way onto the competition floor, Biles looked antsy, shifting her feet and blowing a cursory kiss, over her mask, to the camera. Gymnastics announced that she would compete after all. Less than twenty-four hours before the competition, U.S.A. It seemed likely that she would leave Tokyo without returning to the mat.īut, in the lead-up to the last final, on Tuesday, on the balance beam, Biles’s name appeared on the start list. On Monday, she sat out the final for the floor routine, which is usually her best event. Throughout the week, she was seen cheering from the stands and, in particularly nail-biting moments, using her mask as a blindfold. Last weekend, Biles missed the finals on the uneven bars and on the vault, where she had planned to début a Yurchenko double pike, a move that no other woman has attempted in international competition. “It’s honestly petrifying trying to do a skill but not having your mind & body in sync,” she wrote. Video clips showed her attempting flyaways off the high bar and landing haphazardly on a blue mat far more forgiving than the Olympic floor. In an Instagram video posted after that event, from a gym in Tokyo, Biles documented her ongoing struggle with the “twisties,” a mental disconnect that causes gymnasts to lose their bearings in the air. On Wednesday, she pulled out of the all-around competition, opening up an opportunity for her friend and teammate Sunisa Lee, who ended up taking the gold. On the Gymternet, fans waited, day after day, for updates on Biles’s condition. announced that she would undergo regular health checks to determine whether she could compete in the individual event finals. Last Tuesday, after Simone Biles withdrew from the women’s gymnastics team final, officials from Team U.S.A.
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