Olympic Gymnastics: Team USA Wins Silver Medal As Simone Biles Withdraws from Competition

Team USA secured a spot on the podium with a silver medal in the first women’s gymnastics medal event Tuesday, the first medal of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics for USA Gymnastics. The second-place finish came just after team captain Simone Biles announced her withdrawal from the team competition.

With a score of 166.096, Team USA—made up of gymnasts Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee, Grace McCallum, and Simone Biles—finished just behind the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), which won gold with a score of 169.528. Britain clinched bronze with a 164.096. According to the New York Times, this was the first time since 2010 that Team USA didn’t win team gold in the Olympics or world championships. But the silver medal is a testament to the team’s resilience after Biles’s unplanned departure.

Biles kicked off her performance in the team competition with the vault, one of the events in which she’s the reigning gold medal champion from the Rio 2016 Olympics. But after soaring off the vaulting table, Biles only completed one-and-a-half of her two-and-a-half planned twists, and stumbled forward on her landing, according to Olympics.com.

After a brief discussion with her coach and athletic trainer, Biles withdrew from the rest of the team competition. Shortly after, USA Gymnastics put out an official statement via Twitter: “Simone Biles has withdrawn from the team final competition due to a medical issue. She will be assessed daily to determine medical clearance for future competitions.”

According to NBC Sports, Biles’s coach wrote to NBC, saying that “Physically she is fine. But she is done for the night.”

Jordan Chiles took Biles’s spot on bars and balance beam, delivering solid performances on both, according to AP News. But after a few out-of-bounds steps and a fall on the floor routine portion, Chiles, Lee, and McCallum weren’t able to pull ahead of the ROC to win gold.

In the days leading up to competition, Biles had been open about struggling with the expectations put on her. In the end, she says she just wasn’t in the right mental place to continue competing.

“It’s like fighting all those demons and coming out here. I have to put my pride aside. I have to do it for the team,” she told reporters after the team competition, according to Reuters.

Considering the difficult and potentially dangerous skills Biles includes in her repertoire, she had to do what was right for her well-being and sit this one out.

In an Instagram post from the day before, the 24-year-old mentioned how the immense pressure she has been under is taking its toll:

“It wasn’t an easy day or my best but I got through it. I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times. I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn’t affect me but damn sometimes it’s hard hahaha! The olympics is no joke! BUT I’m happy my family was able to be with me virtually???? they mean the world to me!”

There’s no denying the enormous expectations the world has put on her. Biles is regularly referred to as the GOAT (“greatest of all time”), but with that title comes nearly insurmountable pressure, both external and internal, to never slip up. Biles may be the best of the best, but she is, after all, human.

In a video published by NBC Chicago, Biles is heard reassuring her teammates, saying, “You guys go out there and do what you’ve trained to do. I’m sorry. I love you guys, but you’re going to do just fine. I love you. You guys have trained your whole entire lives for this. It’s fine.”

And her team did just that, delivering some great performances to finish the competition and nab a silver medal. As for what comes next? The athletes will compete in individual competition, starting with the Women’s Individual All-Around competition on July 29, followed by the Women’s Vault/Bars finals on August 1, Women’s Floor finals on August 2, and Women’s Beam finals on August 3. When asked on the Today Show if she will compete in any of her other scheduled events during the Games, Biles said, “We’re going to take it day by day, and we’re just gonna see.”

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