The Team USA gymnasts started strong, but both had difficulty landing their jumps
Simone Biles and Suni Lee had a tough time on the balance beam Monday.
In the penultimate women’s gymnastics event of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Biles and Lee both fell off the apparatus during the balance beam final, ending in 5th and 6th place, respectively. Italy’s Alice D’Amato won gold and teammate Manila Esposito took bronze, while China’s Yaqin Zhou earned silver.
Lee was second to go, and started strong before fumbling a landing on one of her flips. She stumbled backwards, before landing with her legs on either side of the bar and falling off. Lee got back on and finished her routine, ending with a score of 13.100.
Biles was seventh of the eight gymnasts to go, and in between her and Lee all but one of their competitors also fell off the beam. Biles, like Lee, looked solid, but after one of her flips Biles landed with too much power and fell off the beam. She got back on and finished out with her classic dismount, but after a long delay, the judges also gave Biles a 13.100, putting her in fifth place.
Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images
Biles and Lee had both gone into the beam final hoping to improve upon their past Olympic performances on the apparatus. Biles won bronze in beam at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Games, while Lee finished fifth in the event in Tokyo.
Lee was “disappointed” with her beam final, but chipper while talking to reporters, including PEOPLE, after the event.
“I would say it definitely didn’t go how I wanted it to,” she said. “I don’t even know what happened in my series. I thought it was straight on and then all of a sudden I was on the ground.
Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images
“I’m just really disappointed because I feel like I have so much more to prove on beam, and every single time I get to the final, I can just never do the routine that I want to do, but that’s just the mental side of it. So I just need to go and do the work and put all the effort in and maybe one day you’ll have it.”
Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images
Lee added that after nine days of competition, which includes winning bronze in uneven bars the day prior, she was “so tired today.”
“I was telling everyone like, I don’t know if I can do this beam final,” she said. “I’m so tired and then I felt like I hadn’t done beam in a while just because I can’t keep track of my days while I’ve been here. But the pressure was definitely on today.”
LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images
Earlier in these Paris Games, Biles, Lee and their teammates — Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera — won the gold medal in the women’s team final. Biles earned gold in the women’s all-around and Lee took the bronze medal on Aug. 1. Two days later, Biles secured her third gold in Paris in the vault final.
Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images
While she keeps racking up medals and breaking records, Biles said after the team final that she’s not keeping close attention to the numbers.
“I don’t keep count, I don’t keep stats,” she told reporters, including PEOPLE. “I just go out here and do what I’m supposed to and I’m doing what I love and enjoying it, so that’s really all that matters to me.”
To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. And sign up for Going for Gold, our Olympics newsletter, to get the biggest stories from the Games delivered straight to your inbox. Watch the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, beginning July 26, on NBC and Peacock.
News
Elon Musk Signs $10 Million Endorsement Deal with Basketball Star Caitlin Clark, Shaking Up the Sports World /dn
Elon Musk Signs $10 Million Endorsement Deal with Basketball Star Caitlin Clark, Shaking Up the Sports World Elon Musk Signs $10 Million Endorsement Deal with Basketball Star…
Breaking news: World reacts to horrible Caitlin Clark news. Wnba Top News Today /dn
Breaking News: World Reacts to Shocking Caitlin Clark Update – WNBA Top News Today The sports world is reeling after devastating news regarding WNBA star Caitlin…
Caitlin Clark Had The Coolest Reaction To Being Called A “White B****” By Pat McAfee /dn
Caitlin Clark Had The Coolest Reaction To Being Called A “White B****” By Pat McAfee Caitlin Clark and Pat McAfee (Photos via Getty Images) Caitlin Clark has offered…
According to the host of ‘The View,’ Caitlin Clark’s popularity is attributed to ‘White privilege’ and ‘pretty privilege’. /dn
According to the host of ‘The View,’ Caitlin Clark’s popularity is attributed to ‘White privilege’ and ‘pretty privilege’. “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin argued that “White privilege”…
Caitlin Clark’s debut nets WNBA’s highest ratings since 2001 with 2.12m viewers /dn
Caitlin Clark’s debut nets WNBA’s highest ratings since 2001 with 2.12m viewers 2.1m watched the Indiana Fever’s loss to the Minnesota Lynx on ESPN, which was its…
“Basketball’s Brightest Star: Caitlin Clark’s Rise and the Surge of Women’s Sports” /dn
Caitlin Clark: the supernova driving women’s basketball to new heights Iowa’s electrifying basketball savant isn’t just re-writing the NCAA record books. She’s front and center of a…
End of content
No more pages to load