Wow, what a performance by Simone Biles she is becoming something else, another Gold Medal for team USA 😁
Wow, what a demonstration of Simona Birz, it becomes something else and another gold medal for the American team 😁
Paris (AP) -Simone Bale is crowded with Snisa Lee. She saw her husband Jonathan Owens on the stand. It has been lost at this time. And maybe a desperate touch. Simone Biles, left, celebrates with teammate Suni Lee of the United States after winning the gold and bronze medals respectively in the women’s all-around artistic gymnastics final at the Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (Photo /Abbey par)
Paris (AP) -Simone Bale is crowded with Snisa Lee. She saw her husband Jonathan Owens on the stand. I was lost in the moment, and maybe even a little crazy. The U.S. gymnastics star found herself two rounds behind Brazil’s Rebecca Andrade and Algeria’s Kailia Nemours in Thursday’s Olympic all-around final.
After a botched uneven bars routine that included a mistake Biles had no memory of making during the competition, she sat in a chair, closed her eyes, ignored the sea of cameras around her and tried to refocus. She and Lee did the math. Was it that hard? They weren’t sure. It had been a long time since they had seen so many people. Biles asked Owens for advice, and he assured her he’d be OK despite finishing third. His wife of 15 months may not have believed him at the time. “I’ve never been this stressed before,” Biles said.
Perhaps it’s because she hadn’t been pushed like Andrade was, at least not for a long time, in the high-energy Arena at Bercy. But the excitement has since died down. The 27-year-old is putting in the work, redefining what a gymnast can do and how long she can keep doing it. After a stoic routine on the beam and a floor exercise unlike anything done in her sport, Biles found herself accepting a gold medal from IOC President Thomas Bach for the second time, this time with Lee at his side with a bronze medal.
Canada’s Ellie Black of Halifax finished in sixth place with a total of 54.799 points, while teammate Ava Stewart of Bowmanville, Ont., was 19th with 51.632. Eight years ago, at Rio -De -ZHANERO, Birz was a window. Now she is an icon. Someone who remains unbeatable even when not perfect.
Biles now has nine Olympic medals, including six gold medals. And even though she says she doesn’t keep track of these things, somehow she does. Then, in a nod to the GOAT necklace she wore afterwards, she claims to be “a flirty Simone Biles from Spring, Texas.”
Perhaps, she’s also just the third woman to be a two-time Olympic champion, after Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union in 1956 and 1960 and Vera Caslavskaya of Czechoslovakia in 1964 and 1968. Alas, the oldest athlete to stand atop the individual all-around podium since then is 30-year-old Maria Gorokhovskaya of the Soviet Union, who won the first-ever Olympic individual all-around title in Melbourne in 1952.
The sport then wasn’t the same as it is today. The days of the “cute little girl in a box” are long gone. Biles has facilitated this transformation from performance to performance. There’s a reason why the U.S. men’s basketball team and stars like Kendall Jenner will be flocking to watch the game on Thursday.
