Simone Biles’ final performance at the 2024 Olympics has come to an end.
It may not have been the way she had hoped, but it was impressive nonetheless and reminiscent of her start in Paris.
Biles took silver behind arch rival Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, while fellow US teammate Jordan Chiles took bronze after a shocking drop from fifth to third place.
The final competitor of the day, Chiles was initially awarded 13.666 points by the judges. A short time later, Chiles submitted an inquiry regarding her difficulty score, which resulted in her total being increased by 0.1 point, moving her into third place, ahead of Ana Barbos and Sabrina Maneca Boinea of Romania.
Biles appeared to again suffer from calf pain after landing during the event’s warmup and was seen limping on the sidelines just before her performance.
The women’s floor exercise final was closely contested, with Biles finishing with a score of 14.133 and Andrade with a score of 14.166.
Her tumbling passes weren’t perfect — she went out of bounds twice — but that hardly mattered, because her difficulty was so much higher than anyone else’s.
This time it was different. She received a score of 7.833, which included a 0.6 point deduction for crossing the line, and Andrade won her second Olympic gold medal.
On Monday, after several gymnasts had tough morning performances on the balance beam, the floor exercise performances were a bright spot.
Neither Biles nor Li medaled, but the event saw multiple falls by several skaters and a series of mistakes that led to surprising scores from big names in the final that left even the announcers wondering what had happened.
It was the first time that no American gymnasts had made it onto the podium in women’s gymnastics in Paris.
U.S. gymnasts Simone Biles and Suni Lee both fell from the balance beam in the women’s artistic gymnastics final, ending their chances of winning a medal in the event.
Still, the 27-year-old Biles, arguably the greatest skater in the sport’s history, took gold in the team, all-around and vault final in Paris, as well as a surprise silver in her special event, bringing her medal tally to four.
Biles’ performance at the 2024 Olympics has been nothing short of phenomenal.
Wearing a red, white and blue leotard adorned with thousands of crystals, Biles ended nine days of competition in Paris having permanently silenced critics who had long criticized her for withdrawing from several events at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.
She won four medals in total, just one less than she won eight years ago in Rio de Janeiro.
Biles’ medal total (seven gold, two silver and two bronze) tied her with Czechoslovakia’s Vera Caslavska for the second-most medals by a female gymnast in Olympic history. She fell in the balance beam final early Monday, finishing in fifth place and missing a chance to win a fifth medal at the Paris Games.
