The multiple US Olympic champion Simone Biles was replaced during the All Around final of women’s artistic gymnastics at the Tokyo Games, in which Italy also participates with Alice D’Amato, Asia D’Amato, Vanessa Ferrari and Martina Maggio. After performing the vaulting test, which was not flawless, Biles left the competition area and then returned with his team. But this time with the status of substitute for the asymmetrical parallels and the other two scheduled tests. He left the competition after running at Vaulting, where he had scheduled a Yurchenko with 2 ½ twists. Disappointing the score: 13,766. Injured during the wrong landing, she will not compete for her United States. But he will receive the medal in case they go to the podium.
Official statement: “Simone Biles has withdrawn from the team final competition due to a medical issue. She will be assessed daily to determine medical clearance for future competitions.”
Thinking of you, Simone! pic.twitter.com/QA1GYHwWTv— USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) July 27, 2021
The US champion has qualified for all six finals at her disposal (including today’s team finals), but in doing so she did not shine as usual. On his Instagram profile he did not hide the difficulties: “It was not an easy day or my best, but I have overcome it. Sometimes I really feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders ”.
Biles had led the US defense of their women’s gymnastics team title and was looking to increase her tally by four gold medals from the 2016 Rio Olympics. Winning the six golds available in Japan would have meant reaching 10 – one more than Russian gymnast Larisa Latynina with the record of nine gold medals won in three Olympic games: Melbourne 1956, Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964 – and confirming her status as the greatest gymnast of all time. It would also mean scoring the most gold medals won by any woman in any Olympic sport. Only Michael Phelps, with his 23 swimming gold medals, would have won more.
The United States has dominated the team event in recent major leagues, but there have been plenty of warning signs in Tokyo. In favor of Russia, which competes without a flag and is rising again.