As it had been all afternoon for every athlete on every apparatus, the wait for the last of Simone Biles’ scores Thursday was interminable, even torturous. We all knew, though. To misjudge what we all had seen in the last act of the Paris Games gymnastics all-around competition would have required a combination of Don Denkinger’s blown first-base call in the ’85 World Series and that missed pass interference in the 2018 NFC Championship game, with more than a bit of 1972 Olympic basketball chicanery tossed into the mix.
It was so obvious to Biles that she’d won back the all-around gold medal as she completed her floor exercise routine that she flashed her 1,000-watt smile the instant her two feet landed squarely in bounds.
She needed an adequate routine to assure she would finish ahead of Brazil’s majestic Rebeca Andrade. If you expected “adequate” from Biles in this instance, though, then perhaps you’ve never seen her compete.
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Biles was going to fly, and the only variable was whether she’d comfortably land.
Yeah, OK, not really.
Michael Jordan nails the jumper over Bryon Russell, Messi rolls his World Cup shootout kick into the net, Simone Biles sticks the landing.
It’s not because they are legends; it’s why they are legends.
This was the first time in Olympic women’s gymnastics that two all-around gold medalists competed against each other. Suni Lee of Minnesota, Auburn, and USA Gymnastics won at Tokyo 2020, when Biles experienced in-air disorientation and was unable to compete.
Lee since has survived her own significant health issues, a couple of kidney diseases that impacted her 2023 NCAA season, but she recovered to make the U.S. team, significantly contributing to the team gold medal won Tuesday and rallying from a tough start on vault to earn a bronze medal in the all-around.
Once the Olympic competition reached the final rotation for the elite participants, they were in Simone Biles’ house. The floor exercise is her domain. No one ever has flown as high, flipped as tightly, twisted as quickly.
For more of the afternoon than we might have imagined, though, there was a chance. Not a “Dumb and Dumber” sort of chance, not a smidge of a chance, but one-slip-could-change-this chance.
It almost was kind of Biles to inject legitimate suspense into the afternoon, so there was something more to the competition than waiting for her inevitable victory.
Her sloppy, indifferent routine on the uneven bars included a bit of a stutter on the lower bar and an apparent swipe of her feet against the mat covering the floor. It was accorded a 13.733 by the judges; that was nearly a point lower than any of the other seven scores in her two Olympic all-around competitions.
She fell from a sturdy first-place standing after a typically ridiculous vault that earned a 15.766 – her 9.366 execution number was one of the few times anyone in these Games even approached a perfect 10 – all the way to third.
The bars always have been as close to a nemesis as she’s faced since emerging as the world’s greatest gymnast in 2013, but this was even more problematic. Andrade and Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour both passed her with exceptional bars routines.
And the balance beam was the next event.
Biles is one of the best in the world at the beam. She won a bronze medal in Tokyo even while impaired by her condition, after she was forced to withdraw from the team competition and all-around because too many of the events required too much time in the air, too much exposure to the “twisties."
Thing about the balance beam is, if a gymnast fails to maintain balance, she can fall off. It’s not far to drop, physically, but competitively, Biles could have fallen from the peak of Everest. Her performance was as harrowing as any last-second free throw or field goal kick.
She did not slip. She did not fall. She did not wobble. She did flinch, to be honest. But mostly, she flipped, cartwheeled, soared off the end of the beam with energy and grace when it was time to finish. When her score was posted, it wasn’t unreasonable for her to begin wondering who’d be on her left and right on the medal stand.
It turned out to be Andrade and Lee, in that order. And when it became official, when the moment rightfully could have been hers alone to stand and envelop herself in the cheers at Bercy Arena, Biles ran onto the floor exercise platform with an American flag and her teammate. Biles made it about her country’s triumph, not just hers. That is a moment to remember when the Twitter twits start up again.
We’ve learned over the past few days that Biles never will convert the dopes who’ve invested in their attempts to diminish and demean one of the greatest athletes to ever walk this planet – and to fly so high above it. It doesn’t matter anymore. She has conquered many more germane challenges than social media stupidity.
She has been the world’s greatest gymnast since she stepped into the arena. Without verification, though, without a title to confirm that, it’s just an opinion, however educated it might be. Her performance in Paris made her a gold medalist, again.
And there’s more to her “again” than most who repeat as Olympic champions.