Simone Biles won her first gold medal in Paris 2024 on Tuesday as she led Team USA to regain the Olympic team title in artistic gymnastics.
Recovered from the bitter experience of Tokyo, Biles returned to the top of the podium at the Games for the first time since Rio 2016, thus taking home the fifth Olympic gold of her career.
Silver went to Italy and bronze to Brazil, which thus achieved its first team Olympic podium in its history in gymnastics.
With this gold, which the United States had lost three years ago to the Russians – absent in Paris – Biles takes the first step towards reconquering the Olympic empire she built in Rio de Janeiro-2016 when the world discovered what gymnasts had known for some time, that this petite, smiling athlete was not like the others.
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From the moment the announcers announced her name, a packed Arena Bercy cheered every step of the winner of 23 world titles, today wearing a bright jersey in the American colors and a bandage covering the lower part of her leg, although less extensive than the one she finished the qualifications with on Sunday.
In the audience, once again, stars such as tennis legend Serena Williams, film director Spike Lee, and billionaire Bill Gates followed her movements with interest. And the most decorated gymnast in history was quick to show what she came to Paris for to recover what the excessive pressure had taken from her in Tokyo.
With a precise vault on the vault, Biles started the competition with the best score of the first rotation. She also landed on the uneven bars, her weakest apparatus, and after a more discreet step on the balance beam, she was in charge of closing with her spectacular floor exercise in front of a standing stadium.
Tokyo, forgotten
This afternoon in Paris, with 10,000 people cheering, that disconcerting final in July 2021 seemed like another lifetime ago. That day, during the same team decision as on Tuesday, the world was able to see live what seemed unthinkable the powerful Simone Biles, the best gymnast in history, also failed.
Although she later said she had been experiencing them for some time, that day the “twisties” – a phenomenon that causes gymnasts to lose their sense of direction when they are in the air – became unbearable for Biles, who would end up missing most of the events at those atypical Games, held in 2021 due to the pandemic.
Although after Tokyo she thought she would never compete again, after two years dedicated to herself Biles regained her enthusiasm and wanted to return to the sport of her life. But on her own terms.
Historical Bronze
A calmer Biles arrived in Paris to show what she was capable of and, for the moment, there seemed to be no limit to her hopes. Her Olympic reconquest will face another important battle on Thursday, in the final of the individual all-around competition.
Winner of six world titles in this discipline, and Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro 2016, Biles also led the classification on Sunday, ahead of the Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, who was second on all the apparatus and was also the pillar on which her team relied on to climb to the podium on Tuesday.
The first Brazilian female gymnast to win an Olympic medal in Tokyo, where she has twice stood on the podium, the 25-year-old from São Paulo, the reigning Olympic vault champion, led her team’s comeback, which went from strength to strength.
Runners-up at the last World Championships, the gold greens accumulated a few mistakes that led them to sixth place before the last rotation. But their powerful performance in the vault, with a superb Andrade, led them to snatch the bronze from the British at the last moment.
