The US Women’s Gymnastics team regained their spot at the top of the world Tuesday, capturing gold in the team all-around competition under the leadership of Simone Biles.
The team all-around event is based upon the competition of four events by the team as a whole, rather than individually. The vault comes first, followed by the uneven bars. Third is the balance beam, and the competition concludes with the floor exercise.
Biles and Jordan Chiles competed in all four events. Suni Lee competed in three of the four events excluding the vault where Jada Carey took her place.
On the vault, Team USA performed phenomenally. Carey went first out of the three Americans and earned a score of 14.800. Then came Chiles who performed slightly worse, but still earned a good score of 14.400. Now, onto Biles. She is known for performing the most difficult vaults known to the event. Today, she played it slightly safe, but still opted for the second most difficult vault ever: the Cheng. She stuck the landing almost perfectly and earned an astronomical 14.900.
The USA was off to a great start as they headed to the uneven bars in front of a massive crowd with notable names like Michael Phelps, Serena Williams and New York sensation Spike Lee in attendance.
Chiles spearheaded the uneven bars for USA where she crushed. She flipped and spun her way to a 14.366 and shouted her excitement of the performance to the rafters upon landing her dismount from the bars.
Next came Biles. Though she may be the strongest gymnast of all time, this is her weakest event. Yet she showed her greatness on the bars. She pirouetted her way to a score slightly better than Chiles with a 14.400.
The uneven bars is Lee’s greatest event, and she proved why she was America’s anchor for this event. Despite dragging her feet nearly halfway through her performance, she was still awarded a team-best 14.566.
Halfway through the team all-around competition, the USA held a commanding lead. But underdogs Italy and Brazil were showing signs of life and threatening USA’s return to the top of the podium as they headed for the balance beam event.
Chiles started off on the beam for USA. She stumbled upon her entry to the beam and toppled off. As she hopped back up, however, she controlled the nearly 4-inch beam with great prowess. She performed well after the fall and dismounted perfectly earning a score of 12.733.
Next up: Lee, who provided a phenomenal performance on the beam. After dismounting, she jumped with joy as did her family in attendance. Lee earned a 14.600.
The stadium got rowdy as Biles stepped up to the beam. Biles performed well on the beam, but she did have one near mistake which she saved by gripping the beam with nothing more than her ten toes. Laurie Hernandez, the commentator of the event and a former gymnast herself mentioned that “any other athlete would’ve fallen after that,” and that Biles is “a monster” in every event. This salvaged her score and earned her a 14.366—still one of the highest scores in the event.
The USA had an advantage heading into the final event of the night, the floor exercise. Italy was close behind and the USA had to perform well to maintain their lead.
First up was Lee, who performed a near-perfect routine with some slight missteps that many would not have been able to see. The judges did, however, and they awarded Lee a 13.533 as she blew kisses to the crowd.
Then, Chiles stole the show. Chiles started her routine by staring directly into the television camera and offering a wink to the viewers. She performed with “sass,” as Hernandez put it, and said she did “almost the absolute best that she could’ve done.”
Childes was awarded a 13.966 and Lee congratulated Chiles by saying, “That was absolute fire!”
Biles closed the night with the floor exercise. The crowd was on their feet and screaming because all Biles had to do was perform okay and the gold was America’s. It was all up to Biles.
Despite a slight stumble out of bounds, Biles twirled and jumped high into the air with great precision and ended her routine with her signature hand-in-face closing. She jumped off the floor with a huge smile on her face, knowing she had become the most decorated American Olympic gymnast of all time, passing the legendary Shannon Miller.
The USA Women’s Gymnastics team stood atop the podium with an American flag wrapped around the five gymnasts as the National Anthem rang through the arena. Only four of the five gymnasts were needed to perform such a feat.
Hezly Rivera, a 16-year-old from New Jersey, is a member of the team, but was not utilized in the all-around competition due to some poor showings in the individual events. Rivera still earned gold in the team event, however, and is sure to be a mainstay for coming Olympics.
Italy earned silver in the all-around gymnastics contest for the first time in 96 years, and Brazil was awarded bronze, their first-ever medal in the event. But the American Women’s gymnastics team has regained their spot atop the throne, thanks to the legend Simone Biles and the outstanding performances by Jordan Chiles and Suni Lee.
In the London 2012 Games, the American Women’s gymnastics team took gold. In the 2016 Rio Games, they followed up with a repeat of gold. However, in the 2020 Tokyo Games they fell just short of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).
