The women’s gymnastics preliminaries on Sunday morning set the stage for something historic later this week: Simone Biles and Suni Lee, who both won big in their events on July 28, are scheduled to compete in the individual all-around final on August 1.
Biles won the all-around title at the Rio Games in 2016, while Li won in Tokyo in 2020. The Paris Games will be the first time in history that two Olympic all-around champions from the same country will go head-to-head in the all-around final. USA Today. If either of them wins, it will be the first time in nearly 60 years that a gymnast has won two Olympic all-around titles.
The starting lists for the Olympic team, all-around and individual events are determined by the placement of athletes and teams in the qualifying rounds, which are divided into five subdivisions with a total of 96 athletes. After the third subdivision, Biles and Lee are in first and second place. american gymnasticsThis means they are “almost guaranteed” a place in the individual all-around final.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing from the start: Biles appeared to have suffered a serious calf injury while warming up for the floor exercise at the Bercy Arena, with her coach, Cecil Lundy, saying: NBC Sports Despite the pain, Biles “never once considered quitting,” Randi said. She then completed the Yurchenko double pike vault (aka “Biles II”) and felt better by the time she competed on the bars, her final event, Randi said. She ultimately earned a qualifying score of 59.566, good enough to win the past two world championships.
As the preliminary round drew to a close on bars, Lee found herself locked in a battle with two-time U.S. Olympian Jordan Chiles. The two teammates were separated by one point approaching the final apparatus. Ultimately, Lee edged out Chiles in the all-around standings by less than one-tenth of a point. Still, Chiles’ score was good enough for third place (behind Biles and Lee) as of the third subdivision. However, even if Chiles’ score had remained in the top 24 after two subdivisions, she would not have been eligible to represent the United States in the all-around finals due to the sometimes-controversial “two skaters per country” rule.
At the end of the qualifying round, the U.S. women’s team had accumulated 172.296 points. With two subdivisions remaining, the U.S. team is more than five points ahead of Italy, China and Japan, enough to enter the team final on July 30 as heavy favorites.
As they seek more medals on the world stage — and make history in the process — Biles and Li are also experiencing a comeback of sorts.
In 2021, Biles withdrew from most of the competition at the Tokyo Olympics after experiencing “Twisties,” a condition in which the brain and body do not connect properly and spatial awareness is lost. After taking time to recover mentally and physically, the 27-year-old Biles returned to top-level competition at the 2023 World Gymnastics Championships, where she won her 20th gold medal and led the U.S. team to a record-breaking seventh consecutive victory.
Li’s road to Paris was also uncertain. After winning the all-around gold medal in Tokyo, she was diagnosed with kidney disease, cutting short her NCAA gymnastics season at Auburn University, where she had competed for two years. The illness prevented her from training consistently for months, and as she told SELF last fall, she and her team “didn’t know what was wrong with me.” At her lowest point, Li feared she would never be able to gymnastics again. But she made an impressive comeback this year, finishing second at the U.S. Olympic Trials and earning a spot on the U.S. team.
The teammates will get another chance to prove themselves in an unprecedented match on the world stage later this week, with more gymnastics competition (in the form of individual finals) scheduled afterwards.
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