In Tuesday’s balance beam final, Simone Biles won her seventh Olympic medal, tying her with Shannon Miller for the most decorated U.S. gymnast. Biles competed for the first time since withdrawing from the team competition a week earlier with a case of “the twisties.” The 24-year-old earned a bronze medal on the balance beam with a score of 14.000.
Guan Chenchen of China earned gold with a score of 14.633, followed by Xijing, who took silver with a score of 14.233.
“It meant the world to be out there,” Biles said. “I wasn’t expecting to walk away with a medal. I was doing this for me, and whatever happens, happens.”
Biles’ decision to withdraw from the team final and other individual events weren’t purely for the sake of her mental health. It was also a requirement for her physical safety. She barely managed 112 twists before falling out of the air when she attempted an Amanar in the team competition. She landed on her feet, but it was a close call.
Officials cleared Biles to compete in the beam final on Monday night after she continued training and had two sessions with a sports psychologist.
“I don’t really know how I’m feeling,” she said Tuesday. “Right now, I just feel like I have to go home and work on myself and be OK with what’s happened, and I feel like I kind of got to process that while I’ve been here.”
For Biles, even cheering for her teammates and watching them compete has been a difficult task.
“Every time I watch the guys and the girls out there, I want to puke,” she said. “Every time I watch them do a double-double because I cannot fathom how they’re doing it. I don’t understand.”
Tuesday night’s balance beam final began about 2.5 hours after Biles and her coach Cecile Landi arrived at the Ariake Gymnastics Center and began warmups. Biles had a few minor hiccups during some of her runs, but she was solid in other instances.
This new dismount replaced a twisting somersault in her program, and she performed it twice as well as the original. Following the second repetition of the exercise with her teammate Suni Lee as a partner on the floor, she performed ankle exercises while wearing a band. She then sat with her teammate Suni Lee.
Biles, Lee, their coaches, and the Team USA medical officials departed the floor 90 minutes before the beam final after seeing highlights from other Olympic events.
“Before the competition, I think we were both really nervous,” said Lee, who finished in fifth place. “But as soon as she got there, I feel like she just did it for herself and that was the most important thing. It really showed because she did like the best beam routine ever.”
Biles is the current world champion on the balance beam and won bronze at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
When Biles’ left foot slipped during a front tuck landing in Rio, she was forced to hold on to the beam with both hands to keep from falling off.
Some viewed her bronze medal as a disappointment, and it’s rarely mentioned today. Instead of five Olympic medals, she is described as a four-time Olympic champion.
“This definitely feels sweeter than Rio’s bronze on beam because I did do a good beam routine,” she said.
Biles qualified sixth on beam and would have been a strong contender for a medal, if not gold. The reigning Olympic champion, Sanne Weaver, failed to qualify for the final, and Romanian Larisa Iordache withdrew after warmups.
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