Simone Biles left the competition after her first apparatus.
Sunisa Lee, Grace McCallum and Jordan Chiles lead Team USA to a silver medal. While the Americans went into the final as the gold-medal favorite, the meet turned out to be a nail-biter without Biles, and overcoming the eventual gold-medalist ROC’s lead proved to be too tall a task.
USA Gymnastics said in a statement,
“Simone has withdrawn from the team final competition due to a medical issue.
She will be assessed daily to determine medical clearance for future competitions.”
Biles told Hoda Kotb on the TODAY show following her exit,
“Physically, I feel good. I’m in shape…
Emotionally, it varies on the time and moment. Coming to the Olympics and being head star isn’t an easy feat.”
She explained further to NBC’s Andrea Joyce that her struggle was
“more mental, and we’re just dealing with a couple of things internally…. the girls did well. They stepped up when they needed to.”
According to ESPN,
The Russian Olympic Committee became Olympic team champions on Tuesday night, beating out second-place United States by more than 3 points. It was a dominant performance from start to finish from the ROC, and it ended with a stellar string of performances on floor. Viktoriia Listunova earned a rotation best 14.166.
The Simone Biles-less American squad trailed by 0.8 going into the final event but were unable to make up any of the deficit. McCallum and Lee both hit it, but after a fall from Jordan Chiles, the gold was out of reach.
The U.S. women’s gymnastics team earns silver at the #TokyoOlympics. 🥈 pic.twitter.com/2iyll53p0w
— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) July 27, 2021
JUST IN: Simone Biles says physically she feels ‘good’ but ‘it varies’ emotionally https://t.co/jqdzZmE7Nr
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) July 27, 2021
