The U.S. women’s gymnastics team is golden once again, with Simone Biles leading Team USA back to the top of the Olympic podium after winning the team silver medal in Tokyo, securing a gold medal in Tuesday’s team final.
Italy took silver and Brazil the bronze, winning its first Olympic team medal. It was the first Olympic team medal for the Italians since 1928.
Biles officially became the most decorated American gymnast in the history of the Olympic Games with eight medals.
She was previously tied with “Magnificent Seven” star Shannon Miller at seven Olympic medals.
Biles was already the most decorated gymnast in history from any country if you include world championship medals in the tally. She now has 38 combined world and Olympic medals.
Today’s gold extends a 32-year medal streak at the Olympics for the U.S. women, beginning at the 1992 Barcelona Games. It’s their fourth team gold medal.
Biles clinched the gold with a gravity-defying routine on floor, tumbling to the music of Taylor Swift and performing two of her eponymous skills.
“We had the most fun I’ve ever had at a meet,” Suni Lee said after they won gold. “It’s super special because we all knew how much we wanted it, we put in the work and did everything that we needed to do.”
Biles shared the team’s pre-competition ritual, which involved “bumping music, loud.”
“We were just having a good time while we were getting ready,” Biles said. “And we all knew what the job was once we got in here.”
The U.S. kicked off their night on the vault, where they built strong momentum heading into the uneven bars. Lee anchored their bars lineup with a gutsy routine that expertly juggled risk and reward, earning a 14.566.
A fall off the beam from Jordan Chiles sent a jolt of nerves through the U.S. team in the third rotation, but Lee got them back on track with a confident exercise. Biles narrowly averted disaster on a side aerial, the easiest skill in her beam routine, but managed to stay on.
Team USA has several points of difficulty advantage, so Chiles’ missed routine had little impact on their gold medal chances. She more than redeemed herself on floor, where she served up high-flying acrobatics and magnetic stage presence in equal measure, tumbling to Beyoncé.
Reigning Olympic floor champion Jade Carey performed just one routine, a Cheng on vault that earned a 14.800. She sat out floor in the final after a disastrous qualifying routine, when she appeared to get lost in the air on her double tuck, doing only a full tuck and rolling backward, out of bounds.
Carey said in a post on X that she “hasn’t been feeling the best” while in Paris and hadn’t eaten in several days before Sunday’s qualifying.
Hezly Rivera, 16, was the team’s only newcomer and did not compete in Tuesday’s final. She will still receive a medal for her contributions to the team in the qualifying round.
Heading into the Paris Olympics, the U.S. women weren’t afraid to say it — they wanted that gold medal.
Simone Biles called Paris a “redemption tour” for the Tokyo returners.
“I feel like we all have more to give and our Tokyo performances weren’t the best,” Biles said at the Olympic trials in Minneapolis. “We weren’t under the best circumstances, either, but I feel like we have a lot of weight on our shoulders to go out there and prove that we’re better athletes.”
Even Suni Lee, who came away from Tokyo with the all-around gold medal, was hungry to achieve Olympic glory with her teammates by her side.
“I think this time around, we’re so much more mature and know what we can do and what we can’t do,” Lee said.
Two Olympic all-around champions will go head to head in the all-around final for the first time. Biles and Lee contend for gold in that event on Thursday.
NBC
