Bercy Arena, Paris
CNN
—
It was the moment everyone’s been waiting for, and it lived up to the hype.
A little more than three years after a shocking case of the “ twisties” caused her to withdraw from Team USA’s attempt at defending its gymnastics team gold, Simone Biles was back under the bright lights of an Olympic final.
The Americans entered the day as the favorites after cruising through qualifying on Sunday, finishing five points clear of the Italian and Chinese teams. They had much the same experience on Tuesday as they recaptured their gold medal in dominant fashion.
Here are five takeaways as Team USA leaves Bercy Arena in western Paris with another gold medal.
Simone Biles becomes winningest American Olympic gymnast of all time
She’s got a strong case to be called the greatest gymnast of all time. And on Tuesday, she set herself apart from every other American gymnast in history. The Olympic team gold medal was Biles’ eighth at a Games, more than any other American in history.
She also set another bit of history. At 27 years old, with her first gold in these Paris Olympics, Biles is now the oldest American woman ever to win gymnastics gold. She is five years older than Aly Raisman who previously held the record.
It’s hard to overstate just how much this competition is about Biles or how closely watched she is after her shocking exit from this competition in Tokyo. On Sunday during qualifying, the 20,000-seat Bercy Arena fell silent – aside from the bursts of cheers that followed her powerful twists and soaring flips and the explosions of noise when she finished her routines.
While Biles’ obstacles in Tokyo were mental, she faced a physical one on Tuesday. During a warmup for her floor routine, Biles aggravated a bother in her calf that her coach said she had first felt a couple of weeks before the Olympics. She left the arena floor for the locker room area and returned with her lower leg heavily taped.
It didn’t seem to affect her at all as she showed no signs of injury en route to impressive performances on every apparatus.
Italy and Brazil make history
The second and third place teams on the night blazed their own trails.
Italy’s women’s gymnastics team won the silver medal. The last time the team medaled was in 1928. The team was visibly emotional and celebrated with loud cheers and hugs.
The Italian gymnastics team and Team USA celebrated together, sharing a sweet moment hugging one another. Italy and the USA had been on the same rotation schedule throughout the night and the southern Europeans could be seen cheering on Biles during some of her performances.
Brazil, meanwhile, placed third, finishing less than one point behind Italy to take home the bronze. This is the first team medal for Brazil in gymnastics.
The team includes Rebeca Andrade, who became Brazil’s first Olympic champion in women’s gymnastics in 2021 when she won the gold medal on vault and silver in the women’s individual all-around competition at the Tokyo Olympics.
A different kind of win for Team USA
For Suni Lee and Biles, this gold medal just hits different.
Biles won the team gold in 2016 and Lee had her own incredible success in Tokyo, but the victory on Tuesday – with a bit more age and maturity – just means a bit more.
“I mean, I think in 2016 everyone said we were destined to win gold. Everybody kind of already said we’re going to win gold,” Biles said. “And so, whenever we went out there, we did our job and we did win gold, and it was just like we were a little young and naive, so it didn’t hit the way that it does now.
“Now that I’m much older and we have so much more experience, we’re out here really having fun and enjoying what we’re doing. So I think it’s just different.”
Lee agreed, pointing to the crush of expectations that followed the team in Tokyo that Team USA ultimately couldn’t live up to. This time around, it was a bit more simple.
“I guess, like, it’s just different this time around,” Lee said. “And I think last time around we had so many expectations on us. This time, I think we did exactly what we were supposed to: we went out there and we had fun with it. And I think that’s the most important thing.”
The five gymnasts – the most diverse group in US history – clearly share a tight bond that was evident in the post-competition news conference. That includes late-night discussions in the Olympic Village that brought them closer together – even if there are still some loving spats between team members at time.
“So that’s kind of the nature of the conversation, just letting each other know that we can lean on each other because we’ve been there,” Biles said. “It’s really hard to be doing what we’re doing. And it’s easier if we can lean on each other.”
Jordan Chiles completes the all-around and makes her own statement
Olympic rules kept Chiles out of the individual all-around competition – if they didn’t exist, she had more than enough points to compete.
Only the top eight gymnasts in qualifying move onto the individual finals, but no nation can have more than two of their gymnasts in the individual contests. Biles and Lee claimed those all-around spots for the Americans, leaving Chiles – who finished in fourth in qualifying, just behind Lee – on the sidelines.
The same thing happened in the individual vault qualifying. Biles and American Jade Carey will take the US’ spots in the vault finals, leaving Chiles – who again finished in fourth – to watch.
So, that made Tuesday night Chiles’ chance to complete the all-around competition and she did so with flying colors.
“Honestly, it was really, you know, I obviously think the two per country thing is, you know, a little bit kind of like …,” Chiles said, trailing off as she made a disgusted face.
“But you know, having this opportunity definitely felt really good. And being able to be a part of, you know, winning this gold medal and everything that I’ve just gone through. It’s just been an amazing experience so I’m really just proud of each and every one of us that are up here. And I couldn’t, you know … this smile is always gonna be smiling because it’s just been an amazing experience.”
Chiles had one tough routine on the balance beam, at one point slipping off it to the ground. But on the other three apparatuses, she shined and played a major part in the team’s victory.
Russia absent in major political statement
The gold medal-winning Russian team from 2021 wasn’t back this year.
No Russian gymnasts will compete in Paris this year after the country was officially banned from the 2024 Summer Games for the invasion of Ukraine – though a small number of Russians are competing under the banner of the Individual Neutral Athletes. They will not be allowed to wear their country’s colors or have their anthem played should they win a medal.
The Russian gymnastics team decided en masse not to apply to be neutral athletes in protest of the ban and the suspension over the Russian Olympic Committee in 2023.
It’s one of the most intense political statements in the Olympics in years as the fallout from the war in Ukraine and the intense global backlash against the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin seeps into the world of sport.
The absence of Russian gymnasts – traditionally one of the strongest teams in the Games and a major rival of the American team – creates an opening for other nations.
