Simone Biles claimed her first Olympic gold medal since coming to terms with the ‘twisties’.
Watched by Serena Williams and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Biles brought the house down with her show-closing floor routine, showing none of the injury angst that had afflicted her during the qualifying process two days earlier.
In truth Biles could simply have swirled around the floor and soaked up the acclaim such was the American dominance of the competition, as they finished almost six points clear of silver medallists Italy.
Great Britain, whose squad was decimated by injuries to the Gadirova twins and Ondine Achampong, qualified in seventh and could harbour few realistic hopes of emulating their stunning bronze medal win in Tokyo three years ago.
But the team of Becky Downie, Alice Kinsella, Georgia-Mae Fenton, Ruby Evans and 16-year-old Abigail Martin confounded expectations with a near-faultless display, and were placed third until the final piece of apparatus.
Downie admitted the team briefly believed they may have just done enough to reach the podium but ultimately, Brazil’s big finish on vault let the South Americans leapfrog into the bronze medal position.
“Once Alice had gone through beam I thought we’d done enough from our adding-up, but then it came through that we were going to be fourth,” said Downie.
“It is tough when you come so close, but we gave our all. It was an emotional day for me but I felt quite calm. I wanted to take it all in because I know I don’t have many of these moments left, and I enjoyed every minute.”
The day was especially poignant for Downie as it fell on the birthday of her brother Josh, who died suddenly at the age of 24 in 2021, as she was preparing to try to earn a place in the team for Tokyo.
The 32-year-old Downie dazzled throughout, and delivered a score of 14.933 on the uneven bars which was the highest of the day, and will lift her into medal contention for the individual apparatus final this week.
For Biles and her US team-mates Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee and Hezly Rivera, gold was a virtual certainty from the start, and a smiling Biles appeared to revel in the redemptive moment as they eased to gold.
It was in the Tokyo team final in 2021 that Biles left the floor during warm-ups for her first rotation, subsequently playing no part in the final and revealing she was suffering from a mental block – the so-called ‘twisties’ – that would ultimately see her miss out on all but one of her individual finals.
On Tuesday night in Bercy, Biles was back to her best, enthralling the packed crowd as she soared to her eighth Olympic medal, allowing her to extend her undisputed status as the most decorated athlete – male or female – in her sport.
“After I finished vault I was relieved – I was like, woo, there’s no flashbacks,” said Biles. “I did feel a lot of relief and as soon as I landed vault I knew that we were going to do this.”
Biles still has the all-around final and three out of four individual apparatus finals in Paris in which to enhance her legacy further. The packed crowds will return, and so will the gold rush.
