Wall this on the redemption tour. Four of the female gymnasts who competed in Tokyo and won silver in the team event are back in Paris in search of gold. With the qualifying phase now complete, they are one step closer to achieving that goal, but it has been a shaky start.
Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, is back at her third Olympics and hopes to compete this time after deciding to withdraw from the Tokyo Games following a case of the curves. At the Bercy arena in Paris, Biles appeared to walk with difficulty after her floor routine and appeared to be shaking her leg, immediately raising speculation and concerns about her ability to continue competing. During warm-ups for the next event, vault, she crawled alongside the vault track on all fours – smiling a little, but not helping journalists and gymnastics fans who were beside themselves online about what was wrong.
“It’s not appropriate to say out loud what I was thinking,” said Chellsie Memmel, head coach of the U.S. women’s national team, after seeing Biles on all fours. Biles’ coach, Cécile Canqueteau-Landi, downplayed it, saying “It’s Simone.”
Landi said Biles felt some soreness in her calf after the floor routine, so it was recorded before she competed on the vault. It was something that happened “a few weeks ago, but it stopped and came back a little bit today,” she said. She said she was not concerned about Biles’ ability to continue competing in team, all-around and potentially individual events next week. And that in the last of the four races in which she competed, Biles was “feeling better”.
Given what happened in Tokyo, when Biles abruptly left the team event after trying out the turns, a condition that made it dangerous for her to turn and fall, all eyes were on the greatest gymnast of all time, so her awkward gait motivated the online community exploded with speculation and concerns that weren’t helped when she crawled down the vault’s trail. This is because a lot depends on qualification. Forming an Olympic gymnastics team is just the beginning. To actually compete in the first event – the team final, scheduled for July 30 at the Bercy arena in Paris – the gymnasts need to advance as one of the top eight teams during the qualifying round, which took place on July 28.
In Paris, 79 gymnasts competed in three subdivisions throughout the day to advance to the team competition. The North American women – Biles, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee and Hezly Rivera – were assigned to the second subdivision with China in the morning and, after a shaky start, got the job done and qualified. As the North American women finished top of both subdivisions with just seven more teams to go, it was clear that they would be among the eight highest-scoring teams to compete in the team final.
With three more subdivisions to go, the North American team qualified with a score of 172.296. Four gymnasts from each country can compete and, for the team event, only the eight teams with the highest points, calculated by the sum of the three highest scores from each country, will qualify. Gymnasts’ individual scores in each qualifying round event also count – the top 24 scorers are eligible to compete in the all-around competition and the top eight in the individual events.
Qualification is only the second time that gymnasts have been able to compete in the competition space itself, in this case the Bercy arena, and use the equipment. Two days before qualifying, they participate in podium practice, which gives them their first experience of competing in the arena. “This is the first and only time they enter the arena [before competition starts]” says Aly Raisman, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist in the individual all-around who competed with Simone Biles. “The lights are strong, they only stay on the equipment for a short time. I don’t think people realize that every piece of equipment, even if it’s from the same brand, has a very different feel. The beam may be a little slippery or a little harder; the safe track may not be as broken or the floor may be slippery like a rug. So this really has an impact and can make a big difference. So I don’t think this is right [podium training] It’s the only time they get to be in the arena [before competition].”
The session began with the USA on beam, always a challenge as nerves, pressure and expectations converge on a 4-inch thin piece of equipment elevated 1.2 meters off the ground. Chiles started the session and fought several swings that betrayed his nerves. These balance corrections continued throughout the routine of rookie and first-time Olympian Rivera, as well as defending all-around champion Lee. Biles jumped on beam and helped the team shake off their jitters with a solid routine that brought visible relief to the entire cast. . The last time the gymnasts competed in these programs was on the second day of the Olympic trials in late June, where they all made an unusual number of mistakes. With this legacy, starting on beam in the qualifying phase for the Olympics could not have been ideal. “Starting on beam is definitely not easy,” Landi said. “But at the same time, when it’s over, you feel so much better.” Biles certainly helped with that, but the pressure was really great – the arena announcer hyped up the crowd by introducing her, and the audience responded with a deafening cheer, and then fell nearly silent as she climbed the beam and completed her performance. There is usually music and cheering for the other gymnasts, but all the other athletes had already finished their rotation by the time of Biles’ competition. All eyes were on her, following her every move.
After a bit of relief following Biles’ impressive beam performance, tension continued to rise for the U.S. women when Carey, the reigning Olympic gold medalist on floor, walked out of bounds three times and had nearly an entire point deducted. of your score. Although her score was eliminated from the team’s overall tally, it would have helped increase the U.S.’s overall total if she had not made the deductions. “We told her to remember that she is capable of doing this, that she did it and it’s okay,” Landi said. Carey rallied to perform two strong jumps in the next rotation, which will likely earn her a spot in the jumping event final if the average score of her two jumps is in the top 8.
Once qualification is complete, the gymnasts start with a new list in the next team, all-around and individual finals. The North American women will compete on July 30th to win the team gold that eluded them in Tokyo.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
