PARIS — Simone Biles and the U.S. women’s gymnastics team could bring home a lot of souvenirs from the Paris Olympics.
Biles qualified for four of the five individual finals and the Americans have the maximum two gymnasts in all but the uneven bars final. If it weren’t for the two-per-country rule, Jordan Chiles would be in the all-around and vault finals, too.
Biles posted the highest score in the all-around qualfiying, where she’ll be heavily favored to become just the third woman to win a second Olympic title in Thursday’s final. Her score of 59.566 points in qualifying was almost two points ahead of Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, who finished second to Biles at the 2023 world championships.
Biles also qualified first on vault and floor exercise, and was second on balance beam. She is the reigning world champion on floor and beam and took the silver medal, behind Andrade, at last year’s worlds.
Biles almost made the bars final, too. But she was bumped down to the first reserve spot by Belgium’s Nina Derwael, the third-to-last competitor of the night.
Reigning Olympic champion Suni Lee will join Biles in the all-around, posting the third-highest score in qualifying. Lee also made the finals on beam and uneven bars, where she won a bronze medal in Tokyo. Jade Carey made the vault final.
Chiles is in the floor final after posting the third-highest score behind Biles and Andrade. Despite being third on vault and fourth in the all-around standings, she fell victim to the dreaded two-per-country rule that’s designed to keep any team from grabbing all the medals.
Chiles isn’t the first American to be aced out of a final. At the 2016 Rio Games, Gabby Douglas didn’t even get a chance to defend her title because she was third in qualifying and Biles and Aly Raisman went 1-2. That doesn’t make it sting any less.
Source usatoday.com
