Simone Biles and the U.S. women’s gymnastics team defeated Italy and Brazil to win team gold on Tuesday. This marks the first gymnastics team gold for the U.S. since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Biles, along with teammates Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, outscored the second-placed Italians by nearly six points. This victory brings Biles’ Olympic medal count to eight, surpassing Shannon Miller to become the most-decorated U.S. Olympic gymnast in history.
During the meet, Chiles, Carey, and Biles received the loudest cheers from the crowd, particularly for their vaults in the first rotation. After this rotation, the Americans led by almost 1.5 points and maintained their lead throughout the competition. The U.S. team achieved the highest score on every apparatus.
Despite tweaking her calf during Sunday’s qualifications, the 27-year-old Biles performed strongly, scoring near the top on each apparatus with routines of high difficulty. She was the top performer in both the vault and floor events. Notably, Biles had withdrawn from the vault event in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to a case of the “twisties.”
This win marks Team USA’s third all-around team victory since the 2012 London Olympics. Biles and Lee will continue their pursuit of medals in the individual all-around event on Thursday.
