By Juliet Macur
After winning three gold medals in her first three events at the Paris Games, Simone Biles was expected to add to that haul Monday by finishing in the top three on the balance beam — an event in which she earned bronze in the Tokyo and Rio Games.
But after falling during her routine — as many other gymnasts did, too — Biles ended up in fifth. When her score, 13.1, popped up on the leaderboard, she looked furious.
Italy’s Alice D’Amato won the gold medal, with 14.366 points, and Zhou Yaqin of China won the silver, with 14.1 points. Another Italian, Manila Esposito, won the bronze, with 14.0 points.
Of the eight gymnasts competing, four fell off the beam, including Sunisa Lee, the other American in the event, who finished sixth. Zhou lost her balance and had to grab the beam to steady herself, miscalculating one of the easier skills in an otherwise stellar routine.
Lee, the Olympic all-around champion in Tokyo, fell off the beam during a challenging tumbling series, landing on the beam smack between her legs before tumbling to the ground. That was her last chance to win another medal at these Games. She did not qualify for the final event, the floor exercise.
But these Games can be considered a success for Lee, after she was diagnosed with two kidney diseases less than two years ago. She helped the United States win the team gold medal and she also won bronze medals in the all-around and the uneven bars.
Biles, of course, has had an extraordinary Olympics so far — until her fall on the beam, which happened on a back layout.
Having already won three gold medals in the past week — in the team event, the all-around and the vault — Biles has three gold medals at this Olympics and 11 Olympic medals overall. She came into these Games as the most decorated gymnast of all time. On Monday she added a silver medal in the floor exercise. Rebeca Andrade of Brazil won the gold, and Jordan Chiles of the U.S. took the bronze.
About 550 accredited members of the news media were in Bercy Arena last Tuesday for Biles’ gold medal performance in the all-around, and there was another packed crowd Monday, as fans and reporters tried to watch Biles perform for the last time in Paris — and, perhaps, at an Olympics.
Biles, 27, has said she would love to compete at a home Olympics in 2028, when the Summer Games are staged in Los Angeles, but she also said that training for another four years would be difficult on both her body and mind.
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