Current:Home > FinanceWhy Simone Biles was 'stressing' big time during gymnastics all-around final -FinanceCore
Why Simone Biles was 'stressing' big time during gymnastics all-around final
View
Date:2025-04-17 07:28:52
PARIS — Simone Biles is used to being in rare territory.
Not like this, however.
For the first time since the Rio Games in 2016, she found herself trailing in an all-around competition at a world championships or Olympics. Not just trailing, either. In third place at the midway point in the competition.
“I don’t like that feeling. I was STRESSING!” Biles said afterward, able to laugh about it once her second Olympic gold medal of the Paris Games was secured.
Get Olympics updates in your texts! Join USA TODAY Sports' WhatsApp Channel
2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.
Biles was heavily favored to win the all-around women's gymnastics title here. She has won every all-around competition she’s been in going back to the summer of 2011, and last year won her sixth world title. She had the highest individual score in qualifying and again in Tuesday night’s team final.
And, in the first event, it looked as if it was going to be more of the same.
Biles opened with her signature Yurchenko double pike vault. Though she took a big hop back on the landing, the YDP’s difficulty value is so great — at 6.4, it’s 0.8 points higher than the next-hardest vault — that she had a 0.666-point lead over her main rival, Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade.
Then she went to uneven bars. Biles appeared to get too far away on a skill on the high bar, which then affected her momentum as she transitioned to the low bar. She had to bend her legs to keep herself from scraping the mat, and barely caught the low bar.
“That’s not the bars that I’ve been training. Out of all of the events, I think bars is the one I haven’t messed up on once. The whole entire training, here or back in Houston,” she said.
She didn’t fall off the apparatus, but the deductions were almost as costly. Biles looked furious as she came off the podium and again when her score, a 13.733, came up.
“I was like, 'Oh, goodness,” she said. “Thank God we did the (Yurchenko) double pike today because I wasn’t planning on it. But I just knew how phenomenal of an athlete (Andrade) is. On each event, we’re very similar in scores, so I was like, 'OK, I think I have to bring out the big guns this time.’”
As the rotation continued, the cameras showed Biles sitting cross-legged in a chair, her face a mask of intensity.
“Probably praying to every single god out there,” Biles said about what she’d been doing. “… Just refocusing and making sure that as soon as we go to beam, since I’m first up, I can just recenter myself and finish the rest of the competition, because it’s not over until it’s over.
“But I was a little bit disappointed in my performance on bars. That’s not usually how I swing,” Biles added. “I’m not the best bars swinger — I’m not like Suni (Lee) or Kaylia (Nemour), but I can swing some bars, you know?”
The bars score dropped Biles behind both Andrade and Nemour. Not by a huge margin, 0.267 points, but this just doesn’t happen. Since Rio, when she trailed Russia's Aliya Mustafina after bars, Biles has always had a lead.
It didn’t take long for Biles to restore order, however.
Up first on beam, she delivered a confident and secure routine. Though her wolf turn got a little loose and she needed a slight balance check on an aerial somersault, most of her ridiculously difficult routine was done with ease and grace, as if she was saying, “Oh, you like this? Here’s another trick.”
Biles got a 14.566, the highest score of the night on beam, and took a 0.166 lead over Andrade into the final event.
Andrade’s floor routine doesn’t have the same difficulty as Biles, and she stepped out on the landing of her first pass. When Biles landed her first pass, the triple-twisting, double-somersault that is now known as the Biles II, the gold was hers.
Biles finished with 59.131 points, 1.199 points ahead of Andrade. It’s the closest victory she’s had since the 2015 world championships, when she beat Gabby Douglas by 1.083 points.
“I don’t want to compete with Rebeca no more. I’m tired!” Biles said. “It’s way too close. … It definitely put me on my toes, and it brought out the best athlete in myself. So I’m excited and proud to compete with her but uh, uh, uh. I don’t like it!
“But I knew if I did my work,” Biles added, “it would all be fine.”
It was. She was back in rare territory, once again for the right reason.
veryGood! (1333)
Related
- Federal hiring is about to get the Trump treatment
- Louisiana governor signs bill to classify abortion pills as controlled substances into law
- Jan. 6 defendant nicknamed Sedition Panda convicted of assaulting law enforcement officer
- Cracker Barrel stock plummets after CEO says chain isn't as 'relevant,' 'must revitalize'
- All That You Wanted to Know About She’s All That
- NASA says Boeing's Starliner crew capsule safe to fly as is with small helium leak
- See How Kate Gosselin and Jon Gosselin's 8 Kids Have Grown Up Through the Years
- MLB sluggers Juan Soto, Aaron Judge were almost teammates ... in San Diego
- From family road trips to travel woes: Americans are navigating skyrocketing holiday costs
- Fever coach, players try to block out social media hate: 'It's really sad, isn't it?'
Ranking
- Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
- Judge rejects motion to dismiss involuntary manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin in Halyna Hutchins shooting
- WNBA heads to Toronto with first international team as league expands
- Man convicted of murder in death of Washington state police officer shot by deputy
- Jamie Foxx reps say actor was hit in face by a glass at birthday dinner, needed stitches
- 3 falcon chicks hatch atop the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in New York City
- Uvalde families sue gunmaker, Instagram, Activision over weapons marketing
- Erectile dysfunction is far more common than many realize. Here's how to treat it.
Recommendation
Backstage at New York's Jingle Ball with Jimmy Fallon, 'Queer Eye' and Meghan Trainor
MLB's five biggest surprises: Are these teams contenders or pretenders in 2024?
Deion's son Shilo Sanders facing legal mess after filing for bankruptcy
In one North Carolina county, it’s ‘growth, growth, growth.’ But will Biden reap the benefit?
Louvre will undergo expansion and restoration project, Macron says
Sophia Bush Responds After New Pics With Ashlyn Harris Spark Engagement Rumors
New York's A Book Place: Meet the charming bookstore that also hosts candle magic workshops
College sports should learn from Red Lobster's mistakes and avoid the private equity bros