Key events
We’re getting extended gymnast introductions now. The Italian gymnasts look resplendent in white sparkly uniforms.
Then a huge roar as Team USA emerge. They have to pull Simone Biles back to the entrance area to finish the introduction – the GOAT was on her way to the first apparatus, but she returns with a sheepish grin.
The all-important vault
In that first rotation, watch Jade Carey, who fought through illness in qualifying that clearly affected her in the floor exercise to post the third-best vault score and qualify for the apparatus final just ahead of teammate Jordan Chiles, who will also be competing here for Team USA. Chiles will go first, then Carey, and then Simone Biles, who led vault qualifying despite tweaking her left calf and occasionally limping while off the mat.
Also, it was on the vault in Tokyo three years ago that we first saw that Biles was struggling.
So if Carey and Biles do what they’re capable of doing — and in Biles’ case, that would mean doing something no one else is capable of doing — that’ll be a great sign for the USA that everything is OK. In qualifying, Biles hit a vault with a difficulty score of 6.4; no one else tried anything higher than 5.6.
We’re due to kick off in seven minutes.
Schedule
As in yesterday’s men’s event, the USA will travel in tandem with Italy. They’ll start on vault, in which the USA could either put up huge numbers or raise a yellow flag warning that something is wrong. See next post for details.
Look for China to stay close through the first half of the competition. In qualifying, China posted the top score on uneven bars — the only apparatus on which anyone outscored the USA, perhaps because it’s Biles’ worst event by far — and was second on balance beam, and those happen to be their first two stops today.
If the USA get through Rotation 3 (balance beam) with no hiccups, they’ll likely have a lead big enough that they’d need a disastrous series of falls on floor exercise to miss out on gold. But that’s an “if.” Two or three missed routines would make this close, even if the USA attempt routines with degree of difficulty scores that read like height measurements of a men’s basketball team.
The full schedule:
Rotation 1: USA/Italy vault, China/Brazil uneven bars, Japan/Canada balance beam, Great Britain/Romania floor. The USA lineup: Chiles, Carey, Biles. Team GB: Evans, Martin, Kinsella.
This will be Carey’s only appearance and the only event Lee skips. (Hezly Rivera, who posted two non-counting scores in qualifying, isn’t scheduled to appear. Only three gymnasts compete for each country on each apparatus.)
Rotation 2: USA/Italy uneven bars, China/Brazil beam, Japan/Canada floor, GB/Romania vault. Team GB: Fenton, Kinsella, Evans. USA lineup: Chiles, Biles, Lee — it’s Biles’ worst event, but that’s like picking a “worst” flavor of ice cream. She’s still quite good. Vault was Team GB’s strength in qualifying. Uneven bars was Italy’s best.
Rotation 3: USA/Italy beam, China/Brazil floor, Japan/Canada vault, GB/Romania uneven bars. Team USA: Chiles, Lee, Biles. For Team GB, this will be the first appearance for Rebecca Downie, who’s last up after Kinsella and Fenton.
Rotation 4: USA/Italy floor, China/Brazil vault, Japan/Canada uneven bars, GB/Romania beam. Team USA: Lee, Chiles, Biles. Team GB: Fenton, Downie, Kinsella.
Qualifying reminder, or who’s who
Qualifying scores:
1. USA 172.296
2. Italy -5.435
3. China -5.668
4. Brazil -5.797
5. Japan -10.100
6. Canada -10.733
7. Great Britain -11.466
8. Romania -12.799
The USA had the first, third and fourth top finishers individually — the incomparable Simone Biles first, Tokyo gold medalist Suni Lee third, and Jordan Chiles fourth. In the individual all-around, Chiles is out because each country is limited to two gymnasts, but she’s scheduled to perform on three of the four apparatuses today.
Brazil have Rebeca Andrade, the Tokyo silver medalist and 2022 world champion, who finished second in qualification — far behind Biles but well ahead of Lee. They’re not just a one-woman team. Flavia Saraiva was 11th in individual all-around qualifying, and Julia Soares made the event final on balance beam.
Italy had a remarkable qualifying run, with Manila Esposito and Alice D’Amato taking sixth and seventh behind the lead trio, Chiles and Algeria’s Kaylie Nemour, who isn’t in the team event. The top Chinese gymnasts, Qui Qiyuan and Ou Yushan, were eighth and 12th.
I have a question …
Figure skating used to have serious questions about judging, though that concern has faded with a more scientific approach in the past 20 years.
Boxing judging is mystifying, as a couple of US boxers have discovered in Paris.
How is it that gymnastics – along with diving, skateboarding, BMX freestyle and a few other sports – rarely draws a complaint, at least in recent times? What are they doing right that others are doing wrong?
Preamble
This is an event that anyone who follows Olympic sports has had circled on the calendar for months.
On paper, it’s a blowout. The US gymnasts routinely perform routines with degrees of difficulty that are a level above the rest of the world. They have the last two Olympic all-around champions, one of whom (Simone Biles) is clearly the GOAT.
But we’ve seen how things can go awry. In Tokyo, Biles suffered from what’s called “the Twisties” and wound up as a spokesperson for mental health awareness.
Suni Lee is also coming back from an experience that can derail elite gymnasts. She competed in college. Nothing against the college sports experience, but college gymnastics is a different animal, and getting back to international competition can be an adjustment.
The USA dominated in qualification but showed some weaknesses. Biles had trouble with her left calf and appeared to be limping at times. Jade Carey tumbled out of the competition zone on the floor exercise and later revealed that she has been ill.
And let’s not forget – Brazil, Italy and China are pretty good at this as well. Team GB was far off the pace in qualifying, but we have to keep an eye on Rebecca Downie MBE, who is back for her third Olympics after being controversially omitted from the Tokyo squad. And you never know. The US men didn’t look like medal contenders in qualifying, and now Stephen Nedoroscik is a national hero. (Can we give a little love to Fred Richard, who dramatically improved his qualifying scores on all four apparatuses on which he competed? Or Brody Malone, who came back from a near-disastrous qualifying performance with steady appearances on five apparatuses? Or Paul Juda and Asher Hong?)
I digress. We’ll keep an eye on Team GB as well and see if they can surprise.
So we’ll either see a close contest or more brilliance from one of the most transcendent athletes of our time, Simone Biles. Or both. Let’s watch.
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s how the men’s final finished:
As the final rotation of the gymnastics men’s team final began, the Chinese team seemed almost certain to finish Monday as Olympic gold medallists. After dominating the qualifying on Saturday, they had established a commanding three-point lead over Japan with three routines to go. Both teams closed out the competition on the horizontal bar, where China had outscored Japan. With plenty of room for error, all they had to do was remain relatively solid to secure their win.
However, when attempting to execute some of the most difficult gymnastics skills in the world under suffocating pressure, things can quickly fall apart. What followed was a meltdown of the ages. First Xiao Ruoteng, the Chinese veteran, landed his dismount to his knees, stumbling forward before regaining his balance. Then came Su Weide, a 24-year-old in his first Olympic Games, who fell twice. First he peeled off the horizontal bar, then, after regrasping the bar, he immediately tumbled again.
As chaos reigned in the final minutes of the team final and China crumbled, a gutsy Japanese team pulled off a dramatic last-minute comeback to win the first artistic gymnastics gold of the Olympic Games. With a score of 259.594, the Japanese team triumphed over China by .532 points.
While the Chinese team rued their second place finish, an incredibly solid United States celebrated a brilliant bronze medal, their first men’s team medal since 2008. Great Britain, meanwhile, finished 1.8 points behind the USA in fourth place. Despite performing well and counting only one fall, the British team were outperformed by a more well-rounded American team.
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