And once again, here’s Bryan Graham’s report from tonight’s final:
Upsets are fun, of course. That’s why the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournaments and the early rounds of the FA Cup are so entertaining.
But when you can see the greatest at her greatest, that’s something to cherish. Hope you all enjoyed watching – if you weren’t able to see it, catch the highlights of Biles’ floor exercise and vault in particular.
And we still have apparatus finals to come. Can’t wait. See you then.
From the 2024 NCAA women’s basketball champion coach, a three-time gold medalist herself in her playing days …
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA GOAT SIGHTING!!! @Simone_Biles #ParisOlympics2024 pic.twitter.com/7G5W3rYCxj
— dawnstaley (@dawnstaley) August 1, 2024
The pressure of Olympic gymnastics can be overwhelming. The margin between gold and fifth place can be one slip or one missed catch.
It seems almost unfair in a sense to put everything on the line at once. But then it’s so gratifying to see someone like Biles meet expectations and show her best at clutch time.
Bryan Armen Graham’s report is up:
Simone Biles wins the women's all-around
Rio 2016. Paris 2024.
It’s a 15.066. She wins by 1.199 points.
And it caps a stunning comeback from her difficulties in Tokyo.
Big finish as well for the stellar Rebeca Andrade (silver) and the resilient defending champion Suni Lee (bronze).
Updated
So, in the interminable wait for the official score, what shall we discuss? Anything else going on at the Games? What’s up with the US 3x3 teams?
But focusing back here – that was simply greatness personified. It was a Michael Jordan game-winner. A Gretzky goal. A shooter hitting a 10.8 on the final shot.
Simone Biles, final routine (floor) …
Lots of bass in this music.
Her first pass shows her incredible hang time, and she lands it impeccably. The second is less dazzling but also clean.
Confident spin. Big smile. Third pass – tiny hop and close to the line, but it should be OK.
Fourth pass – she keeps her body completely level as she flips several times and lands cleanly.
You don’t have to know intricacies of gymnastics. She just won gold.
Updated
Continuing the final standings (assuming Biles doesn’t get an abysmal score on floor):
11. Rishi (JPN)
12. Kinsella (GB)
13. Pass (AUS)
14. Esposito (ITA)
Fenton’s 18th after an 11.300 on beam.
Andrade gets a 14.033. That clinches silver. Biles needs a 13.867. She got at least 14.600 on her other two appearances so far in Paris.
Rebeca Andrade is up …
She can just about match Biles for hang time, but she has a big step out from her first pass. The second one is solid. The third is spectacular. And she has a fourth, landing with a bit of a hop.
You’d still bet on Biles to finish this off, but it won’t be easy.
Updated
Suni Lee clinches a medal
13.666 for the Olympic champion.
The rest of the top 10 will be …
56.333 D’Amato (ITA)
55.899 Nemour (ALG)
54.799 Black (CAN)
54.766 Qiu (CHN)
54.598 Kevric (GER)
54.032 Saraiva (BRA)
53.965 Visser (NED)
Suni Lee is pacing and scowling. This wait must be infuriating.
Then they announce her name and the crowd roars. She smiles and waves.
She absolutely nails her first pass across the mat, and she beams from ear to ear.
The second one is also good. Another smile. Then she refocuses. A look of determination as she spins.
I don’t know her music, but I rather like it.
A swivel of the hips, a final pass, and that’s it.
Surely, Lee just got on the podium.
The vault is already done.
Fenton has a solid finish on beam.
FINALLY, we get Nemour’s score – 13.100. Well behind D’Amato.
Suni Lee can take the lead, though obviously, Andrade and Biles will have their say.
Ellie Black (Canada) gets a 14.100 on vault to move ahead of Saraiva. I apologize for not being able to see any of her routines.
Still waiting on Nemour’s score and Suni Lee’s floor exercise.
Nemour gets good air on her first pass and lands pretty well. It’s a big step on the second one and almost out of bounds – someone closer to the line will have to make that determination. She then enters a yoga bridge pose, perhaps the only thing these gymnasts do that I can also do.
A big cartwheeling-and-flipping pass looks good, but she underrotates and doesn’t quite stick the landing.
That probably won’t pass D’Amato.
She’s only 17, by the way. Enjoy LA in four years.
Updated
Saraiva wraps up her session with a 13.633 on vault. She has a legitimate shot at sixth. Maybe.
Up now … Kaylia Nemour on floor.
Manila Esposito’s medal chances went away earlier in the night, and she cuts a melancholy figure as she leaves the floor, having fallen to her knees early on. The rest was pretty good, though.
Kinsella got a 13.033 on beam.
Kinsella has what I would call the flying barnacle mount onto the beam, jumping sideways and landing upside-down with the bar in her midsection. She stumbles early, placing her hand down to stay up. Her flips, though, are gorgeous. Not a great landing, and she doesn’t seem too happy, but that might keep her in the top 10.
13.500 for D’Amato. That’s a little higher than I thought, and it raises the pressure on Lee, who’ll need a … 13.534 to tie. That’s 0.001 higher than she did in the team event.
Alice d’Amato on floor – nothing seemed quite right about that. She stepped out of bounds on her first pass. She seemed out of sync at times and appeared to finish her routine before the music stopped.
Alice Kinsella will be up now on beam.
My second screen will be on beam so I can track Team GB. The other group is better placed for sixth and seventh but won’t challenge for a medal, and I’d like to see if Kinsella and Fenton can lock down the top 10.
D’Amato up now … and it’s a shaky start.
Standings after Rotation 3
44.065 Biles
- 0.166 Andrade
- 1.232 D’Amato
- 1.266 Nemour
- 1.266 Lee
Then it’s Qiu, Esposito, Kinsella, Black and Fenton. Fine showing so far from Team GB.
Floor exercise scores from earlier in the Games:
Biles: 14.600, 14.666
Andrade: 13.900, 14.200
D’Amato: 13.700, 13.466
Nemour: 13.166, (none)
Lee: 13.100, 13.533
Order for floor: D’Amato, Esposito, Nemour, Lee, Andrade, Biles.
Biles reclaims the lead
It’s a 14.133 for Andrade.
Nemour’s score was revised. She’s now tied with Lee overall.
Biles, Lee and Andrade are laughing as they all await Andrade’s score. Friendly rivalry here, like skateboarders who cheer big tricks no matter who does them.
Andrade has two paths to victory …
1. Get a big score on beam and build up a significant margin over Biles heading into the floor exercise.
2. Hope Biles completely falls on the floor.
I don’t think she did No. 1. More wobbly than Suni Lee. She needs way more than 14 for the lead.
Lee gets 14.000 on beam. She’s ahead of Nemour and barely behind D’Amato.
Now it’s Andrade, who acrobatically saves herself a few seconds into her routine.
Updated
Lee has the occasional wobble and a little hop on her landing. She doesn’t seem happy. But she never seemed in danger of falling, and some of those skills were dazzling.
Nemour’s score was 13.033, by the way.
Saraiva’s was a 12.333, and I demand a recount. I don’t care if she fell. Create some sort of prize for her like the Tour de France combativity jersey.
We still don’t have Nemour’s score? Were the judges distracted by Saraiva’s routine?
Suni Lee is waiting to go next. And she starts before the Olympics site gets Nemour’s score posted, though we can see on the broadcast that Nemour is now behind D’Amato overall.
Nemour is up now, and she somehow manages to avoid falling, windmilling her arms to stay up. Several other parts of the routine look tentative, but she lands it.
Saraiva is up now on floor, and she should get some sort of medal for sheer determination …
… and as I type that, she bounces out of the square and lands on her stomach.
Still, she has a big smile and has the crowd on her side. She blows a kiss as her music sounds its last note.
My mistake – Kinsella was just on uneven bars, not vault, and she posted a 14.133. She may be in line for a top-10 finish at least.
D’Amato posts her best beam score of the Games, a 14.033. She’s 1.232 points behind Biles and won’t challenge for gold unless catastrophe strikes, but she’s in the hunt for a medal.
On floor exercise, Ou Yushan falls to the mat after attempting a combination. Qiu Qiyuan just went and got a 13.233.
Alice Kinsella pops up with a 13.800 on vault.
Italy’s Alice d’Amato looks to be Suni Lee’s biggest competition for bronze. She didn’t break the 14-point mark in qualifying or the team event.
Her routine doesn’t dazzle like Biles’ routine, but it’s solid.
She gets treatment from a trainer on her ankle or foot immediately after leaving the mat. Seems preventative.
Peeking in on floor – Ruby Pass is shaking with nerves. It’s a 12.966.
Updated
Biles had a 14.733 in qualifying. Then a 14.366 in the team event.
Her score here .. 14.566.
Andrade may have to go huge now.
Deep breath … phew … here we go.
Clean leap onto the beam. Clean back flip. Nice spin. Clean front flip. Big pass with three back flips, all solid.
Maybe a slight wobble on her next flip, but nothing major.
And a very solid landing, with just a slight hop.
Biles looks ecstatic.
The outlook
In qualifying, Biles got a 14.733 on beam and a 14.600 on floor.
Andrade got a 14.500 and a 13.900.
Nemour got a 13.200 and a 13.166.
Bottom line – Biles will likely dominate on the floor. If she stays on the beam, she’s likely to win.
Talk all you want about free throws or penalty kicks. What kind of pressure is comparable to having to nail a routine on a piece of wood that’s four inches wide?
We won’t have long to wait. Biles is up first …
Standings at the halfway point
29.766 Andrade
29.566 Nemour
29.499 Biles
28.800 D’Amato
28.799 Lee
That’s five of the six gymnasts traveling in the lead pack and moving next to balance beam. The expectation before we started tonight was that the medalists would come from this group, and that’s still likely.
28.400 Qiu
28.166 Saraiva
27.999 Ou
27.199 Pass
26.999 Black
Team GB’s gymnasts are the class of their traveling group right now. Fenton is tied for 13th with Esposito, who fell on uneven bars, and Kinsella is 15th.
14.866 for Lee, which moves her up to fifth, but just 0.001 behind fourth-place D’Amato.
On beam, Brazil’s Flavia Saraiva gets a 14.266 on beam, landing between the two Chinese gymnasts in seventh for now.
Updated
Oh my … how someone can fall flat on her face in a warmup, endure a near-endless wait and then go out and dazzle so emphatically on uneven bars is beyond my comprehension.
Suni Lee is not out of this.
Nemour passes Biles
Again, to repeat, this is likely temporary. Kaylia Nemour just did by far her best event and attempted a routine with a 7.200 difficulty score.
But for the moment, after a 15.533, Nemour is now 0.200 behind Andrade – and 0.067 ahead of Biles.
Now up – Suni Lee. Can she get into contention?
Updated
The Chinese gymnasts made up some ground on beam. Qiu Qiyuan scored 14.500 and is 1.366 points back of Andrade, 1.099 behind Biles. Ou Yushan got a 14.033.
And we have an Australian contender – Ruby Pass got a 13.466.
All eyes on Kaylie Nemour, the overwhelming favorite to take gold in the uneven bars final later in the Games. She’s not as good on the next two apparatuses, so to contend for the all-around, she’ll have to nail this routine.
Most gymnasts probably don’t want to hear Laurie Hernandez says, “Saves it!” in the midst of a routine, but she recovers control and goes back and forth, back and forth with hardly a pause in the action.
Should be a pretty big score.
It was a 12.800 for Esposito after that fall.
Bear in mind – in the team event, Andrade outscored Biles on vault and uneven bars. Biles more than made up the difference in the last two apparatuses.
Italy’s Manila Esposito has a nasty fall on uneven bars and takes a considerable amount of time to compose herself before resuming. She swings around the bar many times before finally flying off for her dismount.
Her teammate, Alice d’Amato, did even better than Andrade with a 14.800 on uneven bars.
Updated
Andrade takes the lead
It’s an excruciating wait for Biles’ score.
Finally, it’s … 13.733??
Oh my. She trails Andrade.
Ellie Black got a 12.933 on beam, which probably ends any chances of challenging Biles or Andrade.
And Biles answers.
This is her worst apparatus. Laurie Hernandez spots a mistake, but she avoids touching the floor, and she lands as if she’s hopping down to the mat from a 2-inch step, not a high bar.
Well now … Andrade impresses again.
The Brazilian flies between the bars as if she has springs in her hands, but she has no trouble stopping her momentum to do a clean handstand.
It’s a 14.666. That’s even better than she did in qualifying and team event. Difficulty was 6.2.
Georgia-Mae Fenton has a 13.633 on vault.
I watch the balance beam peeking out from my fingers because it always seems that they’re an inch from disaster, but I’ll keep an eye on that with one screen while following uneven bars on my main one.
Suni Lee has been great on uneven bars – except in warmups. She falls, again. Not hurt, though.
Scores after Rotation 1
Reminder that we’re heading into Biles’ weakest event, uneven bars. It’s Suni Lee’s best event, and Kaylia Nemour is off the charts here.
15.766 Biles (USA) – vault
15.100 Andrade (BRA) – vault
14.066 Black (CAN) – uneven bars
14.033 Nemour (ALG) – vault
14.000 D’Amato (ITA) – vault
13.966 Ou (CHN) – uneven bars
13.933 Lee (USA) – vault
13.900 Saraiva (BRA) – uneven bars
13.900 Qiu (CHN) – uneven bars
Kinsella has slight hops on two of her landings, but she successfully pulls off a combination, landing and then bouncing back up for another flip/twist or two. Nicely done.
But the difficulty score is only 4.900, and it’s a 12.833.
The IOC stats feed tells us Kinsella’s father played football for Walsall, Swindon and Cheltenham and played 48 times for Ireland.
Brazil’s Flavia Saraiva, who competed in the team event with a bandaged forehead, is the last athlete on uneven bars. She looked serious and furious all through the team event but is all smiles after landing a strong routine.
It’s a 14.033 for Nemour, the third-best score on vault.
Alice Kinsella is on the floor now.
Updated
That’s a 13.866 for Esposito. Shows what I know.
Qiu gets a 13.900 on uneven bars, which shows how solid she was outside of the fall.
The vault moves quickly, and Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour is up last – now. Not bad, but clearly not in the Andrade/Biles stratosphere.
Italy’s Alice d’Amato gets a 14.000 with a well-executed vault.
Teammate Manila Esposito barely gets around on her vault. I’m going to guess – 13.325.
Stephen Curry is here.
In third place overall in the early going, it’s Canada’s Ellie Black with a 14.066 on uneven bars.
Qiu is up now on bars, and she’s unable to catch the bar on a difficult move and slips to the floor. That’ll be a deduction. She comes back with a fantastic finish, though.
Biles opens with a 15.766
My goodness.
6.4 difficulty, 9.366 execution.
Updated
Biles lands it!
She’ll get knocked down a bit for a big hop on the landing, but she did the most difficult vault in women’s gymnastics clearly.
Georgia-Mae Fenton has a 13.033 on floor.
Andrade matches her score from the team final – 15.100!
Up to Biles now, attempting the Yurchenko double pike, for which the difficulty score is astroronomical.
Suni Lee’s score is disappointing. It’s 13.933, two tenths lower than her qualifying score. But it’s a solid execution score of 8.933. The difficult was 5.000, which will not be in the same league as …
Rebeca Andrade, who just soars, flips and lands cleanly. She could take an early lead on Biles here.
Team GB’s Georgia-Mae Fenton is doing a floor routine to a symphonic version of Another Brick in the Wall. Interesting.
Japan’s Haruka Nakamura gets a 13.700 on beam.
The first score of the night is in – Germany’s Sarah Voss with a 12.866 on floor.
Still waiting on Lee’s score.
Suni Lee is up first. She seems clean in the air but lands considerably off-center with a little hop. She doesn’t seem overjoyed.
I apparently don’t have the “multiview” option that I had for the team event, so I’ll just say I think Germany’s Sarah Voss has cool music on the floor exercise.
Might be nice if the main feed would show other routines instead of 30 seconds of Suni Lee pacing, but …
Athlete introductions are just underway, because gymnastics is almost like a US sport in the sense that the posted start time isn’t really the start time.
Kaylia Nemour, who used to represent France, gets a nice roar from the crowd. Then Suni Lee and Rebeca Andrade draw an even louder reception. Then comes Simone Biles. I’d like to see a decibel reading on that.
A question has come in about BBC coverage and where to watch this. Being in the USA, I haven’t the foggiest. Can anyone share?
Rotation 1 preview
Biles and Andrade should leap out in front on the vault. Biles’ 15.800 in qualifying was the highest score on any apparatus in qualifying. Nemour was the only person to come close to that with a 15.600 on uneven bars.
Lee, Nemour and Esposito also broke 14 on the vault.
Qiu starts on her strongest apparatus by far, uneven bars, on which she posted a 15.066 in qualifying. None of her other scores were above 14.
Schedule
The top six in qualifying (Biles, Andrade, Lee, D’Amato, Esposito, Nemour) will start on vault.
The group on uneven bars will include the two Chinese gymnasts (Qiu Qiyuan, Ou Yushan), along with Canadian Elsabeth Black and Australian Ruby Pass.
Team GB’s Georgia-Mae Fenton and Alice Kinsella will start on floor exercise.
Score breakdown
How did the top contenders here fare in qualifying and in the team event? Glad you asked …
Qualifying (Overall score, then vault, uneven bars, beam and floor)
1. Simone Biles: 59.566 – 15.800, 14.433, 14.733, 14.600
2. Rebeca Andrade: 57.700 – 14.900, 14.400, 14.500, 13.900
3. Suni Lee: 56.132 – 14.133, 14.866, 14.033, 13.100
4. Kaylia Nemour (Algeria): 55.966 – 14.000, 15.600, 13.200, 13.166
5. Manila Esposito (Italy): 55.898 – 14.133, 14.166, 13.966, 13.633
6. Alice d’Amato (Italy): 55.432 – 13.200, 14.666, 13.866, 13.700
7. Qiu Qiyuan (China): 54.998 – 13.233, 15.066, 13.533, 13.166
8. Elsabeth Black (Canada): 54.766 – 14.100, 14.166, 13.100, 13.400
9. Rina Kishi (Japan): 54.699 – 14.033, 13.566, 13.500, 13.600
10. Flavia Saraiva (Brazil): 54.199 – 14.100, 13.800, 13.133, 13.166,
Team event
Biles: 14.900, 14.400, 14.366, 14.666. Her vault was less challenging than what she attempted in qualifying. Her beam routine was just slightly less spectacular.
Andrade: 15.100, 14.533, 14.133, 14.200
Lee: no vault, 14.566, 14.600, 13.533. Huge improvement on beam.
(Nemour did not compete)
Esposito: 14.166, no bars, 13.966, 12.666. Maybe dealt with some nerves on floor.
D’Amato: 13.933, 14.633, 13.933, 13.466
Qiu: 13.133, 14.300, 14.600, no floor
Preamble
Welcome to the women’s gymnastics all-around final, where we will be following the biggest story of the Games …
What will be the impact of Big Parma on this event?
Well, that and the prospect of watching Simone Biles, the greatest women’s gymnast of all time, winning the all-around title eight years after doing so in Rio and three years after having to drop out in Tokyo.
Or maybe seeing Suni Lee go back-to-back after a couple of years in the relative wilderness.
Or maybe seeing Rebeca Andrade become the first Brazilian to win one of the most cherished gold medals of the Olympics.
We’ll be underway in about an hour. Let’s watch …
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s how the team event went down:
Of course there was theatre at the very end. Two hours into this women’s Artistic Gymnastics Team final, with the USA coasting grandly at the head of the field, the logistics of competition left Simone Biles with one final act to stop the show.
Three years on from Tokyo and The Breakdown, the only discipline remaining in that same team event was the Biles floor routine. And so in front of Bill Gates, Gianni Infantino, Serena Williams and Spike Lee, in front of the eyes of the world as ever, Simone Biles got to dance like no one was watching.
Paris 2024 knew what it was getting with these gymnastics, a spectacle that would play out, as it did here, like a cross between the Super Bowl, Vegas and a Marvel movie. Mainly it was getting America: American flash, American show, American story-telling, the key event in a Games that has for many editions now been powered by US TV money and US sport tourism. Frankly, there haven’t been this many Americans in Paris since 1945.
And of course Paris was getting the Biles-industrial complex, the Biles narrative arc, which reached its full extension on a wonderful night of flex and twang and defiance of the elements; one that ended, naturally, with gold for the US women.
You can read the full article below:
