American gymnasts Simone Biles and Suni Lee will history on Aug. 1 at the 2024 Paris Olympics. That is when the respective all-around gold medalists from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics will compete head to head marking the first time that has happened in Summer Games competition.
Biles and Lee finished in the top two spots during their subdivision competition Sunday with Biles (59.566 points) pulling away from everyone else. Lee collected 56.132 points, while fellow United States gymnast Jordan Chiles finished third, just 0.067 points behind Lee. Despite a solid performance, the two-per-country rule means Chiles will not join her teammates the all-around finals.
Sunday was a success but not a smooth ride. Biles was visibly in pain as a calf issue flared up during floor warmups. She exited the floor with USA Gymnastics team doctor Marcia Faustin but came back and posted the highest scores on floor and vault.
Biles withdrew from several events during the 2020 Olympics while dealing with a gymnastics mental block called the "twisties." However, the 27-year-old said she was in a much better mental space entering these games. Even with the calf pain, her coach, Cecile Landi, said Biles remained confident with it "never in her mind" to withdraw from the competition.
"We told her to remind herself that she is capable of doing it, that she's got this, and it's OK," Landi said.
WOW. 😲
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 28, 2024
There are no words for Simone Biles. #ParisOlympics
📺: NBC, E! and Peacock pic.twitter.com/sOWzVez7dL
Team USA is the heavy favorite to win the team competition with Russia not competing in Paris. The Americans have been on a "redemption tour" after failing to win a gold medal in Tokyo with the squad primed for success not just in the team competition but the individual events as well.
So far so good for the Americans, which scored 172.296 points during qualifying to lock a spot in Tuesday's team final.
"They're happy and relieved," Landi said. "Day one. Now moving on to team finals, all-around finals, a couple event finals hopefully."
Women's Artistic Individual All-Around
Subdivision 2
- Simone Biles (United States) -- 59.566
- Suni Lee (United States) -- 56.132
- Jordan Chiles (United States) -- 65.065
- Kayla Nemour (Algeria) -- 55.966
- Manila Esposito (Italy) -- 55.898
- Alice D'Amato (Italy) -- 55.432
- Qiu Qiyuan (China) -- 54.998
- Ou Yushan (China) -- 53.965
- Elisa Iorio (Italy) -- 53.898
- Helen Kevric (Germany) -- 53.865
Women's Team Top 5
Through Subdivision 2
- Unites States -- 172.296 (officially qualified for Team Final)
- Italy -- 166.861
- China -- 166.628
- Great Britain -- 160.830
- Romania -- 159.497
