Olympic gymnastics: Simone Biles falls on beam and goes for gold on floor – live updates | Paris Olympic Games 2024

Floor exercise order

Esposito (ITA)
Andrade (BRA)
Ou (CHN)
Kishi (JPN)
Barbosu (ROU)
D’Amato (ITA)
Biles (USA)
Maneca-Voinea (ROU)
Chiles (USA)

For those obsessing over the medal count …

… which I really shouldn’t be doing because it can take the focus away from outstanding achievements, and the international insistence on focusing on gold rather than total devalues the awesome accomplishments of silver and bronze medalists. But anyway …

The gold medal count is now China 21, USA 19. Then a long drop to France with 12.

My projections, adding future events to the ones that have taken place, have the USA at 38.5 to China’s 35.

If Biles or Chiles wins, that projection only goes up to 38.75 because the USA are heavily favored here. If they don’t win, the projection drops to 37.75.

The USA will have several opportunities for gold the rest of the day – mixed team skeet, women’s discus, women’s 800m, women’s surfing. China’s best bet is the women’s team sprint in cycling.

Is this our last glimpse of Simone Biles at the Olympics?

We don’t know. She hasn’t ruled out a run at the 2028 Games. She could take time off and come back. Or she could keep seeking more world championship medals.

But just in case – watch this, either now or on a highlight reel later, and savor.

Lineup for the women’s floor exercise, the final gymnastics event in Paris …

“Artistic” gymnastics, anyway. We’ll still have rhythmic gymnastics.

Qualifying scores:
14.600 Biles (USA)
13.900 Andrade (BRA)
13.866 Chiles (USA)
13.800 Maneca-Voinea (ROU)
13.700 D’Amato (ITA)
13.666 Ou (CHN)
13.633 Esposito (ITA)
13.600 Barbosa (ROU)
13.600 Kishi (JPN)

Yes, nine gymnasts. They tied for eighth in qualifying.

Team event scores:
14.666 Biles, even with an 0.2 penalty
14.200 Andrade
13.966 Chiles
13.900 Maneca-Voinea
13.566 Barbosu
13.466 D’Amato
13.433 Kishi
12.733 Ou
12.666 Esposito

All-around scores:
15.066 Biles, nailing down gold with authority
14.033 Andrade, yes, second place was 1.033 back
13.566 Barbosu
13.500 D’Amato
13.233 Kishi
12.733 Esposito
11.933 Ou

You get the idea. Biles can make a mistake or two here and still win handily. Her difficulty score in the team event was 6.9. No one else tried anything above 5.9.

And this is a more forgiving event. No beam or bar from which to fall. Yes, things can go awry, as they did for Ou in the all-around. But this should be more predictable, with Biles and Andrade finishing 1-2 and Chiles battling the two Romanians for bronze.

But the Italians have a ton of momentum and confidence after taking gold and bronze on the beam.

Shinnosuke Oka wins horizontal bar for his third gold medal of the Games

Srbic gets 11.333.

Su Weide gets his first release. And his second, though it’s straight with no twists. His third release is an acrobatic one, and he catches solidly.

It looks great …

… until the landing, with another step forward!

Colombia’s team embraces Barajas and weeps. It looks like he’ll take silver behind Oka. Then Zhang and Tang will likely share bronze.

Maybe. Is Su’s awkward landing worse than what happened with Zhang and Tang?

Apparently so. The difficulty score was only a 6.0, compared to the 6.5s for Zhang and Tang. It’s a 14.433.

Croatia’s Tin Srbic lands on his face. That may be all you need to know. He unwraps his hands, and I’m not sure he’s going to continue. Shot of the crowd – Jade Carey’s jaw dropped.

Srbic rewraps and resumes. He bungles a transition and loses all of his momentum, then drops to the mat. He walks over to the side of the mat. Will he continue again?

Indeed he does. The crowd roars in appreciation. He doesn’t have much left of the routine, but he sticks the landing for an appreciative crowd.

Barajas will take a medal for Colombia.

Su Weide will have the final word. Brilliant in qualifying, big falls in the team event.

It’s a 13.966, tied for third with Tang. They had matching difficulty (6.5) and execution (7.466) scores.

To my untrained eye, it looks like Zhang is making his catches late. But he’s going strong … until the landing, when he takes two big steps forward.

The elusive gold will remain elusive. Might be on the podium, though. There’s a lot of space in the standings between silver and bronze right now.

It’s 11.633 for Sugino.

Here’s Zhang Boheng. The favorite. Silver in team and all-around. He might want this more than anyone else in the field.

Takaaiki Sugino gets HUGE air on his first release. And he gets it again on the second, but he can’t catch the bar. It’s a hard landing, and he gets up slowly, more agitated than injured. But he raises an arm to the crowd before hopping back on and doing two more big aerials. It’s a big stumble on the landing, though. Tang will stay on the podium bubble for now.

Marios Georgiou of Cyprus is the master of the one-armed swing and catch. Several of his catches are one hand first, then the other. He also manages one rotation hanging on with one arm. It’s impressive, but he face-plants on the landing. That’s surely enough to keep him out of medal contention, as impressive as that was.

We’ll have the score at some point …

It’s 13.333. Difficulty was 5.9. He’s not happy. I don’t think he would’ve challenged Oka and Barajas without the fall, but he surely would’ve been ahead of Tang.

Standings
14.533 Oka (JPN)
14.533 Barajas (COL)
13.966 Tang (TPE)
13.333 Georgiou (CYP)

NBC confirms that it was Heidi Gardner in the crowd. Personally, I’d be more star-struck by her than I would be by Tom Brady, but maybe I’m a bitter fan of the other 30 NFL teams.

Score for Barajas …

…

… any time now …

14.533 – he’s tied with Oka, but execution score is the top tiebreaker, so he’s in second. The difficulty was 6.6. Execution was 7.933.

Boo. Maybe technically correct, but definitely no fun.

Barajas has one stunning release. Then another, and it’s a combination!

Leave it to the judges to find some little mistake here or there, but he just did one of the most daring routines anyone will ever see, and he caught himself cleanly each time and landed solidly.

Was that Saturday Night Live’s Heidi Gardner in the crowd?

Oka is so consistent. He had a 14.533 in qualifying. He lands a 14.533 here. That’s 5.9 difficulty and 8.633 execution.

Now up: Colombia’s Angel Barajas. He’s 17 and will have the highest difficulty scores if he isn’t forced to change it up on the fly.

Shinnosuke Oka took gold in the all-around, gold in the team event and bronze in the parallel bars. He barely catches the bar after a twisting aerial trick. He flings himself around and around, then sticks the landing.

OK, so Tang isn’t going to take gold …

The carnage continues.

Tang Chia-Hung is in the midst of a breathtaking routine, but he misses a catch and lands on the mat as if a pro wrestler body-slammed him.

But he returns to pull off a brilliant move, flinging himself high off the bar and twisting twice before catching it again. His dismount is flawless.

NBC’s commentators say he’s out of the running, but the way things are going in Bercy Arena today, who’s to say all eight gymnasts here won’t fall? I’m not really kidding.

Score is 13.966.

Men’s horizontal bar lineup

Let’s check the difficulty scores …

D’Amato 5.8
Zhou 6.6
Esposito 5.8
Andrade 5.7 – she must have really downsized from her earlier routines. It was 6.1 in the team event and the all-around. With a 6.1, she would’ve had a total score of 14.333, just behind d’Amato.

Biles and Lee had difficulties of 6.2, even with falls that interrupted some of what they had planned.

OK, onward …

Alice d’Amato wins balance beam gold

So, while we wait for Andrade’s scores, shall we watch a couple of movies?

Biles applauds. She and Andrade are the friendliest of rivals, and Biles would surely be perfectly happy to see the Brazilian take gold if she can’t have it herself.

This is it. Land the dismount for gold.

Nice.

Laurie Hernandez is hedging her bets. But surely …

Rebeca Andrade moves with the elegance and athleticism of Biles. She’s simply superb. Some of her landings seems slightly off-center.

The crowd sounds like everyone in the arena is holding their breath.

Rebeca Andrade has one gold medal in her glittering career – the vault in Tokyo. She has two straight silvers in the all-around behind Lee in Tokyo and Biles here. She also has a silver in the vault and bronze in the team event in Paris. A gold medal is in her grasp here.

Biles is getting angry as she waits a long time for her score. Someone hints that it might be for “TV time.” NBC is not at commercial, so don’t blame US broadcasters.

Please get on with it …

People in the crowd are furiously yelling various incomprehensible things.

Biles looks ready to destroy someone on social media.

Finally – 13.100. Fourth. Couldn’t have expected any more.

NOW we’ll get Andrade to wrap up an ugly competition with a lot of falls, stumbles and interminable waits …

It’s a big dismount for Biles, but she strides away with nary a smile.

She could still get in the high 13s, but she won’t crack the podium.

Only Rebeca Andrade stands between Alice d’Amato and a stunning gold for Italy.

Biles’ spins are impossible to describe. There’s a mastery we just don’t see elsewhere …

… and she just fell.

If you’re obsessing over the USA-China race in the gold medal standings, good news for US fans – China will not take gold.

Biles is up. And she looks good to start.

Another long wait. What do we have?

14.366! Alice d’Amato has clinched a medal.

Next up: Simone Biles. At The Guardian, we have minute-by-minute commentary on soccer and over-by-over on cricket. We’re going skill-by-skill for the GOAT.

Alice d’Amato (Italy) doesn’t seem to have the grace or poise of the gymnasts who’ve come before her. But she’s gotten through most of her routine without falling. She seems to be gaining confidence as the routine goes on.

And her dismount is magnifique.

Not sure about the difficulty level, but she remained solidly on the beam. Surely ahead of Suni Lee to get on the podium for moment. Could she possibly take the lead – and clinch a medal?

Maneca-Voinea falls again. It’s sheer carnage in Bercy Arena today.

Score is … taking a while … come on, folks, she’s not on the podium. Let’s hurry it up.

My goodness, seriously. Let’s get a score. The crowd claps in impressive rhythm to no music. Maneca-Voinea looks ready to get on with the rest of her life (starting with the floor exercise at some point today).

Any day now, really …

All that wait for … 11.733. Last place. We knew that. Thanks. Move on.

Italy’s Alice d’Amato is up next, and given her scores so far in Paris, she seems unlikely to pass her teammate Esposito or Zhou.

It’s a 14.000 for Esposito. Solid 8.2 for execution, but it’s only 5.8 for difficulty. Zhou had 6.6.

Standings at halfway point
14.100 Zhou
14.000 Esposito
13.100 Lee
12.333 Soares

If Biles and/or Andrade hit their routines, even with a few wobbles here and there, they’re easily ahead of Zhou.

Next up: Romania’s Sabrina Maneca-Voinea …

… and she drops to the mat after her first sequence of somersaults.

Manila Esposito gets down to business right away, flipping onto the beam and doing an immediate sequence of somersaults.

She flips, wobbles, and she’s surely going to fall … but no! She saves it! On into a spin. Then a lovely move from straddling the bar up to a handstand.

It’s a shorter routine than the others, and she sticks the dismount.

Maybe not the start value of Zhou, and she did wobble a bit, but will that put her in the lead at the halfway point?

Soares took bronze in the team event, and she certainly earned it.

Today, it’s a 12.333.

Next up, another team event medalist, Italy’s Manila Esposito. Will she be the first to land her routine without a major mistake?

Well now – Brazil’s Julia Soares has a spectacular imitation of a jellyfish to start with. She confidently lands a series of … oh no, she also fell. Such an unforgiving event. Seems unlikely that she’ll be ahead of Lee, let alone Zhou.

Will the door open here for a D’Amato or a Maneca-Voinea? Two favorites have gone, and neither hit anything close to a perfect routine.

Lee’s score is 13.100. She’ll have to settle for her … OK, let’s look up the list … bronze in the all-around (gold in Tokyo), bronze in the uneven bars (matching her Tokyo bronze), gold in the team event (up from silver in Tokyo). Not bad from someone who recovered from kidney issues.

She went to Auburn, so as someone who grew up in the shadow of the University of Georgia, I feel obliged to make an SEC rivalry comment, but my heart isn’t in it. She’s too good.

The USA’s Suni Lee takes a few deep breaths. She has looked like a bundle of nerves the whole time she’s been here, and then she just lands her routines when they matter most.

Beautiful spin, and her first somersaults go well. Hernandez spots a little bobble, but she recovers for a triple somersault combination … and lands hard on the beam before falling to the mat.

She bobbles again before landing a solid dismount. But you can’t fall all the way off the beam and expect a medal.

Zhou and her coach are staring with some consternation up at what we presume is the scoreboard, but the rest of us have not yet been told the score.

Finally – it’s a 14.100. The difficulty was 6.6, and she still manages a 7.500 execution.

Next up: Suni Lee.

China’s Zhou Yaqin seems a little shaky on her first two landings, and NBC’s Laurie Hernandez notes that she has bailed out of part of a combination. She later has to put two hands on the beam to steady herself, which in the eyes of the judges is nearly as bad as falling.

It’s a steady second half of the routine with a one-step hop on the landing. But she’s going to have to hope Biles, Lee and Andrade slip up if she’s to take gold.

The order: Zhou, Lee, Soares, Esposito, Maneca-Voinea, D’Amato, Biles, Andrade.

So we’ll see the co-favorite for gold in this event up first. Zhou Yaqin is 18, with a world championship silver medal on the beam. Repeating – she had the top score in qualifying and the top score posted on the beam in any competition here so far, at 14.866.

Another medal and another gold opportunity for the USA today: Austen Jewell Smith and Vincent Hancock will be in the mixed skeet final against Italy.

Back in Bercy Arena, we’re getting gymnast introductions, and you could probably hear the roar for Simone Biles in neighboring arrondissements.

Medal count update:

Zou just took China’s second gold medal of the morning, so that tie atop the gold medal rankings didn’t last long. It’s now China 21, USA 19. But South Korea claimed the badminton gold, so China couldn’t run that lead to three.

The balance beam is one of the few events with legit gold medal contenders from the two front-runners going head-to-head.

My latest projections are USA 39, China 35.

For total medals, which draw less interest in the rest of the world than they do in the USA, judging by media and social media chatter (as one should not), the projection is USA 123, China 87. At some point, I’ll have to do projections for France – they have 44 total medals now, not far behind China’s 49.

Women’s balance beam lineup

Zou Jingyuan (CHN) wins his second straight parallel bars gold

All-around champion Shinnosuke Oka of Japan swings through some impressive handstands and gets big air. His last big skill on the bars is a jump into a pike into a handstand … look, he’s very good. And his dismount was near perfect.

HAS to be at least bronze. Silver?

Germany’s Lukas Dauser took silver in Tokyo. He’s the 2023 world champion on this event. He’ll have to go big to beat Zou.

Ouch. He bangs into the bars as he swings downward. But the rest is otherworldly, aside from a hop on the landing.

He injured his bicep in June, so getting to this stage is an accomplishment in itself. He probably won’t top his qualification score of 15.166. Did he beat 15.1 to get on the podium? He doesn’t seem to think so, and we have a longer wait for the scores than we have for the previous gymnasts.

The score is …

The score is …

Come on, folks.

Difficulty 6.0, execution 7.7. That’s 13.700. I’d have to guess that his mishap also took out part of his planned routine.

One gymnast left – Vernaiev is guaranteed a medal.

China’s Zou Jingyuan is a boss. Almost every time he goes to a handstand, he immediately gets his body in a perfect line. He flings himself the length of the bars like a salmon jumping upstream, if a salmon could also get to a full vertical handstand. His dismount is nearly perfect as well.

NBC’s commentators believe this is the best routine of all time. It’s surely the best tonight.

Difficulty 6.9, execution 9.3. That’s a 16.200. That matches his score from qualification, and still, we could be forgiven for thinking he deserved even more.

Ukraine’s Oleg Vernaiev isn’t quite getting set on his handstands, and then he gets crossed up moving from bar to bar and spins out to land on the mat.

Like all gymnasts do even when they know they’ve made a mistake that will keep them from the podium, he goes over to get some chalk and hops right back up for a flawless final 20 seconds or so.

He finishes with 13.300.

All eyes now on Zou Jingyuan, the defending champion and by far the highest scorer in qualification.

Japan’s Wataru Tanigawa has a major bobble early in the routine, with his body leaning to about 2 o’clock before he managed to recover. He’ll have to be content with his gold in the team event. Poor guy.

Scores: 6.3 difficulty, 7.833 execution, 14.133. Fourth out of four with four to go.

Standings
15.500 Kovtun (UKR)
15.100 Zhang (CHN)
15.100 Arican (TUR)
14.133 Tanigawa (JPN)

Next up: Ukraine’s Oleg Vernaiev.

Turkey’s Ferhat Arican, the bronze medalist in this event in Tokyo, is trying a routine similar to Kovtun’s, but even the untrained eye can see a few flaws. His handstands are bent or curved, not straight. Will the difficulty score put him in contention?

He seems thrilled, and the crowd roars in appreciation. He makes a heart shape with his hands in response.

Difficulty 6.900, execution 8.200 – 15.100, tied with Zhang.

Next up, men’s all-around silver medalist Zhang Boheng. He does a dazzling leap, then springs all the way down the length of the bars from one end to the other.

He lands bent over with his head and chest down and takes a couple of moments to straighten out.

I would think what Zhang did was more difficult than what Kovtun did, but having attempted neither, I can’t say for sure.

Scores are in, and apparently, Zhang’s routine was simpler. His difficulty is 6.400, execution 8.700. That’s 15.100, a little under his previous efforts and well behind Kovtun, who bested his qualifying score here.

Ukrain’s Illia Kovtun builds suspense with long, firmly held handstands. He doesn’t do anything spectacular in the air, and he has as little hop on the dismount, but his form in switching positions on his handstands is fluid and confident.

It’s a 15.500 – 7.000 difficulty, 8.500 execution. That’ll contend for a medal.

There’s a nice ad for Hyundai airing in the USA about kids burning out on one sport and trying something else. It has multiple endings. I often see one with a young girl running off to play soccer with a big smile. Another ending features a boy fist-bumping as he walks into a breaking studio.

But every time my wife is in the room, it’s the latter.

This morning, it’s the soccer ending. I need to start recording it to prove to my wife that I’m not hallucinating.

The heavily inked Illia Kovtun is up first.

NBC leads off its coverage by announcing that Tom Brady is in attendance.

Please tune in anyway, those of you who grumble about his 23-year run of good fortune that led the Patriots and Buccaneers to seven championships. All luck. Well, most of it.

Men’s parallel bars lineup

Preamble

Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s how Simone Biles got on in her previous event:

At the world championships last year, a few days after her spectacular comeback began with a stellar all-around gold medal, Simone Biles’s first vault final ended with a fall. It was the first time she had performed her Yurchenko double pike in a major final and as she searched for the floor after the vault, her legs crumpled beneath her. Biles finished in second place behind Rebeca Andrade of Brazil.

As the Biles redemption tour continues and the gold medals keep on coming, she reasserted her status as the greatest vaulter of all time, keeping Andrade at bay with another supreme ­exhibition. Biles finished the vault final with an average score of 15.3points. Andrade averaged 14.966 and Biles’s teammate, Jade Carey, scored 14.466 for bronze.

This is the second time Biles has won the vault gold medal, following on from 2016. With three golds –in the team, the all-around and the vault competitions – she has now won 40 Olympic and world medals, further extending her record as the most decorated gymnast – man or woman.

You can read the full report below: