Without Biles, US sees Russians end hegemony in artistic gymnastics – 07/27/2021

The medal dispute by teams in women’s gymnastics in Tokyo Olympics was marked by drama by Simone Biles and intense competition between the United States and Russia. The athletes of the Russian Olympic Committee were perfect and broke the streak of two gold medals for the American team, making a double with the men’s team, which won on Monday.

The United States’ hegemony as the best female gymnastics team in the world dates back to 2013, when Simone Biles made her debut on the adult team. And the Americans lost exactly when they couldn’t count on the best gymnast today.

Biles put on a bad jumping performance, not just for his standard but for the level of an Olympic final, and withdrew from the gym. He came back in a sweatshirt, not to compete anymore. The United States Olympic Committee explained that it was a medical problem, without specifying whether it was physical or psychological. The American press has been unanimous in saying that Biles does not suffer from injuries, but from psychological issues.

Since the jump, and without Biles, the Americans ran to try to make the difference to the Russians, who were in the same rotation. In other words: USA and the Russian team — which compete in Tokyo in Tokyo does not compete as “Russia”, as punishment to the Russian Olympic committee — made the same equipment at the same time, taking turns with their athletes.

Climbed with Jordan Chiles, Grace McCallum and Sunisa Lee (the latter replacing Biles), the Americans totaled 166,096 points and were waiting for Russia’s last appearance, which needed to be a catastrophe, which didn’t happen. With Viktoriia Listunova, Angelina Melkinova and Vladislava Urazova, the Russians finished with 169,528 points.

In third place ended the Great Britain, which threatened the second place of the United States and had a good dispute with Italy to pinch the bronze. China finished seventh only.

The US has not lost a high level competition since the 2012 Olympics, won by China. With Biles, they won the 2014 World Cup, 2015, 2018 and 2019, in addition to the Rio Olympics in 2016. Russia, on the other hand, has never won an Olympics, not with that name. It won in 1988 as the Soviet Union, in 1992 as a unified team representing the former Soviet republics, and now, as ROC, stands for “Russian Olympic Committee”.

the drama of bile

Simone Biles came to Tokyo as a big star in the sport, to be consecrated in her second Olympics, and because of her the Ariake Gymnastics Center was full for the team final today (27). Of course there was no common fan, those who buy tickets, because of the ban imposed by the local government, but many people took advantage of their credentials to punch cards in the gym.

From leaders of countries such as Lesotho, Cook Islands and Rwanda to the highest authorities of the US Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The artistic gymnastics team final is one of the first major events of the Games. By bringing together almost the entire G7 of the world economy – only Germany was left out, giving way to Italy and Belgium. There is so much interest from the press that only those with a special invitation can enter the gym.

Biles, of course, was the star of this show. Without missing out on the most complete gymnast competition in the world since 2013, the year she entered the adult category, the American won four gold medals at Rio-2016 and five at the last Worlds, held in 2019. It’s much easier to count the times in that she has not gained than the conquered diamonds.

But in Tokyo something is going wrong. It’s still not clear what. In the qualifying phase, Biles took three steps back on the jump, about to leave the stage. In the jump, it didn’t nail. In the asymmetric ones, it was wrong. In the jump, he almost fell. Because she is Biles, much better than the others, yet the sum of her grades left her first in the all-around and classified for three finals by apparatus.

Still, for the Biles level, for the best of all times, it’s not much. And so it was hoped that the answer would start to come today, in the competition that is considered the most important in gymnastics, for the team spirit. This commitment may justify why she continued in the competition area, performing with light movements of her arms and legs the exact exercises that her colleagues did on the crossbar, on the ground and on the asymmetrical ones.

Regardless of what the problem is, Biles has little time to recover. On Thursday morning she competes in the all-around final. And from Sunday it competes for medals in the apparatus. There are still five golds left for her to win, but it’s getting harder and harder to believe that she will take all those victories home.

Editor’s note: At the Tokyo Olympics, Russian athletes are competing under the official name “Russian Olympic Committee” (ROC), not as a country (Russia). This is due to the International Olympic Committee’s punishment of the nation for systematic cases of doping. UOL chose to continue using Russia to facilitate the reader’s understanding.

–