Simone Biles’s third and possibly final Olympic appearance concluded on Monday afternoon during the floor exercise final, where she narrowly lost the gold medal to Brazilian competitor Rebeca Andrade by just 0.033 points.
At 27, Biles, the most decorated female gymnast in history and the oldest American woman to qualify for an Olympic gymnastics team since the 1950s, achieved a remarkable feat by earning a fourth medal at these Paris Games, with prior golds in the team event, all-around, and vault. This brings her total to 11 medals over an incredible Olympic career that has lasted eight years.
Performing third to last among the nine finalists, Biles received a standing ovation after an impressive routine, highlighted by her signature Biles II triple double on the first pass and a Biles I double layout with a half twist on the third. However, deductions for stepping out of bounds ultimately left her 0.033 points behind Andrade.
Jordan Chiles from the United States claimed the bronze medal, making her way from fifth to third following an inquiry. Overwhelmed with joy, she shed tears when her updated score of 13.766 appeared on the scoreboard, just 0.066 points ahead of Romanian gymnasts Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea.
Biles increased her record as the most decorated female gymnast ever, amassing a total of 41 medals from both the Olympics and world championships.
“I couldn’t be prouder of my accomplishments,” she stated afterward. “At 27 years old, I’m leaving this Games with four new medals to add to my collection. I have no regrets.”
With her second career gold to accompany her three silvers and one bronze, the beloved Andrade became Brazil’s most decorated Olympian ever. Her prior gold medal came during the Tokyo 2020 Games in the vault after Biles withdrew.
Earlier, Biles fell short in her pursuit of a fourth medal in the balance beam final, finishing in fifth place after losing her balance during her routine, one spot ahead of her U.S. teammate Suni Lee, who also experienced a fall.
On the other hand, Italy’s Alice D’Amato didn’t just win the final; she managed to endure it. With a routine free of major errors, the 21-year-old from Brescia achieved an unexpected Olympic title, marking Italy’s first-ever gold in artistic gymnastics, and stood on the podium with teammate Manila Esposito, who earned the bronze. Biles and Lee both finished fifth with identical scores, while Chinese teenager Zhou Yaqin took home the silver medal.
On the last day of a competition that began seven days earlier with Italy clinching their first artistic gymnastics medal in 96 years, Brescia and Esposito displayed remarkable composure while many prominent competitors faltered in a beam final that will not be preserved in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne for future reference.
The balance beam, which challenges gymnasts to execute highly complex routines on a platform merely 4 feet above the ground and no wider than a credit card, is regarded as the most precarious piece of equipment in the sport. On Monday, amidst a series of mishaps, at least half of the eight finalists fell victim to the inherent unpredictability of the discipline.
Zhou, the 18-year-old debutant competing first in the lineup, seemed on track for a flawless routine before a balance error forced her to bend over and grab the beam, eliciting gasps from the audience and resulting in a significant deduction. Her score of 14.100 was disappointing, especially after topping the qualifiers with 14.866.
Next was Lee, who delivered a strong performance until she slipped on the final skill of her aerial series and fell awkwardly on the beam. She received consolation from her longtime coach, Jess Graba, after completing her routine with a score of 13.100, concluding her Paris Games with a team gold and two bronzes, including one in the all-around—a commendable achievement for a gymnast who overcame serious kidney issues just to compete.
This opened the path for Biles to potentially become the third American woman to win the Olympic title on beam, following Shannon Miller and Shawn Johnson.
However, D’Amato took the stage next, executing a flawless routine that earned her a score of 13.466, securing her gold and prompting enthusiastic applause from the crowd.
The opportunity for Biles to capture her eighth Olympic gold and her first on beam was within reach, but she walked backward off the beam after performing a back handspring-layout stepout-layout stepout—a sequence on which she has rarely faltered. Biles managed to remount and successfully completed her dismount, but following a lengthy wait, she was awarded a score of 14.100, which placed her level with Lee and out of the medal ranking.
Earlier, China’s Zou Jingyuan clinched gold in the men’s gymnastics parallel bars, becoming the first man in 32 years to win medals on both rings and bars in the same Olympic Games. Ukraine’s Illia Kovtun secured the silver medal, while Japan’s Shinnosuke Oka captured the bronze. In the men’s horizontal bar final, Oka achieved his third gold medal of these Olympics in a competition plagued by mistakes. Colombian teenager Angel Barajas earned the silver, and Taiwan’s Tang Chia-hung and China’s Zhang Boheng shared the bronze medal.
