PARIS — Fans at Bercy Arena wore white T-shirts with the Olympic rings printed across the front. Each ring featured a photo of a U.S. gymnast inside. Underneath, there was a single word: “Redemption.”
This felt like more. It was relief. It was a release.
It was gold.
The four members of the Olympic team who remembered their Tokyo disappointments rewrote their narratives by leading the United States back to gold with a dominant wire-to-wire performance in the team final on Tuesday. Finishing with an untouchable 171.296 score, the Americans ran across the floor after Simone Biles clinched the victory on floor, raising the U.S. flag to all sides of the arena and posing for photos.
Three years after withdrawing in the Olympic final because of mental health concerns, Biles blew a kiss to the crowd as she saluted the judges after her floor routine.
The U.S. has won three of the last four Olympic team gold medals and 10 of the last 11 major team championships, including seven consecutive world titles.
The Americans were so dominant that they still won by 5.802 points over silver medalists Italy despite watered-down routines and a fall from Jordan Chiles on beam. Biles did not compete featuring her eponymous vault, sacrificing eight-tenths of a point in difficulty marks. Lee did a straight-forward straddle split mount on the beam instead of a high-flying round-off, back layout.
Brazil claimed the bronze medal.
Chiles bounced back from her fall on beam — the only blemish in her otherwise excellent Olympic performance that included a third-place all-around finish in qualifying — with a thrilling floor routine that had the entire crowd clapping along with her Beyoncé music. Fans erupted when she nailed her final tumbling pass. She blinked back tears in her ending pose.
After wilting under the deafening silence of the crowd-less Tokyo Games, the U.S. gymnasts soaked up the energy from a loud, pro-U.S. arena. American flags waved in every corner of the sold-out arena as the U.S. rotated to each event. They pumped their fists as fans chanted “U-S-A!” Stars including Serena Wiliams, Michael Phelps, Natalie Portman, Nicole Kidman, Spike Lee and Nadia Comaneci were in attendance for one of the most in-demand tickets of the Games.
Jordan Chiles of the United States performs on the floor during the women’s gymnastics team finals at Bercy Arena on Tuesday in Paris.
(Natacha Pisarenko / Associated Press)
As Biles stood at the end of the vault runway waiting for her first routine, a single fan shouted through a quiet lull: “We love you, Simone!”
Since Tokyo, the 27-year-old’s star has only grown. She’s transcended the sport, becoming a mainstream star attending red carpet events. She’s a vocal advocate for mental health that other athletes in the Olympics have looked to for inspiration. She’s a businesswoman and wife.
She didn’t have to go back to being a gymnast. Yet focusing on the other parts of herself seemed only to elevate her greatest strength.
“Nobody’s forcing me to do it,” Biles said after U.S. Olympic trials. “I wake up every day and choose to grind in the gym and come out here and perform for myself.”