Simone Biles, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee and Hezly Rivera pose on the podium with their gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Consider the first leg of the "redemption tour" complete.
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| Jamie Squire/Getty Images |
Finally, back atop the Olympic medal podium, at last, the U.S. women's gymnastics team that brought home silver from Tokyo 2020 (171.296). Italy will take home the first Olympic team medal in 96 years with the silver (165.494). Brazil earned a bronze – its first Olympic team medal in history (164.497).
Simone Biles now possesses eight Olympic medals, five of them gold, more than any U.S. Olympic gymnast in history. With Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, Biles stands as part of the fourth American team to win the Olympic gold medal in this event.
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| Behind the scenes: Simone Biles leads Team USA to gold |
Speaking after landing the vault—the event during which she got the 'twisties' that forced her to withdraw from the team final and several events in Tokyo—Biles said she felt the pressure slightly lifted. "I was like, Phew, at least no flashbacks or anything," Biles said.
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| Jade Carey sticks the landing on vault in team final |
"I did feel a lot of relief and after I landed vault I was like, 'Oh yeah, we're definitely going to do this,'" she said. Reigning Olympic champion on floor, Carey chose not to go up at all in the team final after a scary fall in the qualifying round and revealed after the competition she wasn't feeling good. "This is everything for me; I am so honored to have been part of this team and to have been given the opportunity today," said Carey. "This week hasn't exactly gone how I wanted it to, but I'm just grateful that I was able to compete tonight and get the job done and do exactly what this team needed from me," she said. Rivera, the youngest member of the entire U.S. delegation across all sports, was not selected for any of the lineups — the U.S. instead opted to rely on its veterans.
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| Chiles battles back on beam to help Team USA win gold |
Biles and Chiles are both four-event competitors, while current Olympic all-around champion Lee was part of the lineup on bars, beam, and floor. "It's just been an amazing experience," Rivera said. "The practice was awesome with them because you could just see how everybody was in the gym working so hard, mentally and physically.
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| Suni Lee helps lift USA to gold in Paris |
I was just happy to be on the floor supporting them tonight, and after all we've been through, pulled it all together tonight on the day that counts. So proud of this team. And I really enjoyed supporting the girls tonight." Great Britain's performance was a turnaround after finishing seventh in qualifications for the final. While in this season, the team bagged a bronze in Tokyo, most of the country's top athletes were injured prior to the Games and therefore cast doubt on medal prospects. So it remains at number four.