PARIS — Simone Biles doesn’t want a break, not when there’s a Olympic gold medal to win.
Biles will do all four events in women’s gymnastics team finals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, passing on the chance to get a little bit of rest in a competition that is both lengthy and stressful. This despite tweaking her left calf during qualifying.
Biles will anchor the U.S. women’s gymnastics team on vault, balance beam and floor exercise, and go second-to-last on uneven bars. Jordan Chiles, who got aced out of the all-around final because of the silly two-per-country rule, also will do four events. She’ll lead off on vault, bars and balance beam, and will go second on floor exercise.
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Biles was visibly limping between events Sunday after a flare up of a calf injury. But she posted a photo that appeared to be from practice Monday, and her mother Nellie said on NBC’s TODAY show that she was doing fine.
Chellsie Memmel, the technical lead for the U.S. women’s team, said last week it would be up to Biles to decide how many events in team finals she wanted to do. USA Gymnastics is trying to be conscious of both her schedule — she has qualified for four individual finals, including the all-around — and not wanting her to feel as if she has to carry the team.
Biles said last year that someone with USA Gymnastics told her in Tokyo she was the team’s “gold-medal token,” which contributed to her anxiety. Biles wound up withdrawing after one event in the team final with a case of “the twisties,” which caused her to lose her sense of where she was in the air.
“I don’t say that to her. Or, ‘You are keeping us all together and we rely on you and you alone,’” Memmel said, emphatically. “If (not doing all four) is what she needs to continue to be at her best for the team and for herself, that’s what we’re going to do, because there are still four other members on our team.”
But Biles is looking for redemption in Paris, so much so she powered through qualifying after tweaking her calf in warmups on floor exercise. Biles briefly left the floor and then had her ankle heavily taped, but she delivered a monster score on floor, did her signature Yurchenko double pike and then finished with a solid uneven bars routine.
The Americans finished with 172.296 points, more than five points ahead of Italy. Though scores start over in team finals, the Americans will begin on vault Tuesday, which should give them a big cushion.
Biles will be doing either the most difficult vault in the world if she does her Yurchenko double pike or the second-hardest vault being done now If she does the Cheng. Carey and Chiles were third and fourth on vault in qualifying, behind reigning Olympic and world champion Rebeca Andrade.
Should the Americans win the team gold, it would be their fourth at the Olympics and third since 2012. It also would give Biles eight Olympic medals, breaking her tie with Shannon Miller for most by a U.S. gymnast.