Biles Golden In Bercy

02 Aug Biles Golden In Bercy

Posted at 00:43h in News & Features, Paris 2024 by Christy Sandmaier 0 Comments

Inside Gymnastics will be on the scene in Paris for the XXXIII Olympiad bringing you all of the action from the Games! Make sure you’re following our social media pages (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & Threads) for all the latest and greatest in what promises to be the most epic and most-watched Olympic Games ever.

Dates: July 27 – August 5
Venue: Bercy Arena
TV channels: NBC, USA Network, E!
Streaming: Peacock, NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com, NBC app, NBC Olympics app

TV Broadcasts + Streaming Info

Primetime coverage featuring marquee events will begin at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and Peacock.
The complete gymnastics schedule, including the apparatus feeds for each session and TV listings, is also available on the NBC Olympics schedule page.
Live and tape-delayed coverage of gymnastics will be shown on the following TV channels: NBC, USA Network and E!

The Schedule

Gymnastics at the 2024 Paris Olympics will air on NBC, USA Network and E!, and stream on Peacock and NBC Olympics platforms starting on Saturday, July 27.

Watch Live Here

Watch Replays and Extras Here

Look for previews, stars and storylines on InsideGym.com throughout the Games!

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Together, They Rose

In the moment we all needed, on the podium we all needed, and in an Olympic Games that has, so far, proven to be undeniably epic in every way, Simone Biles was crowned the women’s All-Around Champion Thursday night in Bercy Arena. In doing so, she has amassed 39 Olympic and World Championship medals, became the first woman to win an individual Olympic gymnastics event twice in a non-consecutive Games (only Li Xiaopeng of China accomplished the feat, taking gold in parallel bars in 2000 and 2008), and now joins Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union and Vera Caslavska of Czechoslovakia as the only three women to win Olympic All-Around titles twice.

Her score of 59.131 was 1.199 more than silver medalist Rebeca Andrade of Brazil (57.932). Suni Lee (USA), the reigning Olympic All-Around champion, won bronze scoring 56.465.

All three women lit up the arena, all three with such remarkable stories of resilience that we’ll long remember well after the Games, not for their scores or placements, but for the pure inspiration each has brought to the sport on and off the competition floor. Each has had a piece in each other’s success, pushing limits, making each other better athletes, and elevating the sport to incredible levels.

In Rio 2016, Biles won the All-Around title as almost a formality with the medal nearly around her neck before she even stepped into the arena. In Tokyo, the twisties left her on the sidelines during the All-Around competition, choosing instead to focus first on her physical and mental well-being. It sent a message on what’s most important and for three years, she’s spent time healing, becoming a new athlete along the way.

In Paris in 2024, her win went beyond words given the extraordinary journey she took to stand on top of the podium. A legacy that will long be remembered for her advocacy and openness about mental health, allowing herself and her competitors to have a voice in their own careers, and to rise above insurmountable pressure in order to become the undisputed greatest of all time in gymnastics.

Andrade’s journey has been framed by three ACL surgeries in four years, a global pandemic, and an Olympic postponement. Seemingly one obstacle after another, and yet nothing could stop her from achieving her lifelong goal of becoming an Olympic medalist. With time to heal, in Tokyo, she took home All-Around silver behind Suni Lee and gold on vault. In Paris, she looked brilliant. She just happened to be competing on the same floor as Biles. Ultimately, her story is one of perseverance and faith.

“Doing the All-Around, to me, demands a lot from my body, my lower limbs, legs, and knees,” she said in the press conference. “But I said that the future belongs to God: What if something comes up in my head or my body gets better? I don’t know. But I have worked this out in my head, and I wanted tonight to be a very special competition because, to me, that was my last All-Around.”

Since being crowned the 2020 Olympic All-Around Champion, Lee’s journey has taken so many twists and turns to even get to the Bercy Arena, it’s beyond extraordinary. Determination, tenacity and resolve can only begin to describe her path to Paris and no one was more grateful than she was to return to the Games and compete on the All-Around stage. In fact, she was once so far away from her second Olympic dream, she nearly gave it all up. She faced a debilitating and very well-publicized health issue that for a very long time, left more questions than answers. Building back slowly and peaking at the perfect time, she’s now a two-time Olympic All-Around medalist.

“I really didn’t think that I would even get on the podium,” she said. “I went out there and I just told myself not to put any pressure on myself because I didn’t want to think about the past Olympics or even trying to like prove to anybody anything. I’m so grateful that I had my coaches and, you know, having Simone here today definitely helped me a lot because we were both freaking out.”

Starting on vault, Biles made the decision to go with the Yurchenko double pike instead of the “easier” Cheng to gain an early scoring edge on Andrade (who performed one of the most stunning Cheng’s we’ve ever seen). A mistake on bars in the second rotation kept the competition between her and Andrade too close for comfort for Biles, who noted the stress she felt in that moment during the press conference following the medal ceremony.

“At that point,” she said. “I’m not sure what I was doing, but praying to every single god out there.”

With no room for error and balance beam in front of her, Biles noted, “I’ve never been so stressed!” Then, turning to her right to Andrade, “thank you Rebeca!”

“But, I knew if I did my work, I’d be fine.”

So the 27-year-old Biles meditated, checked in with her husband on scores, and worked to stay calm alongside Lee. Moments later, she took to the beam exactly the way champions do. The routine was solid as can be, setting her up perfectly for floor. And, as the final competitor with the world waiting, she was ready for it, and it was gold. Coronation complete, she is truly the greatest of all time in an era of gymnastics that has changed the sport forever.

“I’m super proud of my performance tonight and the fight that I’ve had for the last three years mentally and physically just to get back competing on a world stage,” she said. “The Olympic Games is an amazing experience so I couldn’t be prouder.”

Biles also recorded the highest scores in three of the four events, scoring 15.766 on vault, 14.566 on balance beam and 15.066 on floor exercise. Andrade ranked second on vault (15.100) and floor (14.033), while Lee had the second-highest score on uneven bars (14.866) behind the 15.533 from Kaylia Nemour of Algeria.

Look for more of our coverage of the Women’s All-Around competition in our 2024 Commemorative Olympic Issue of Inside Gymnastics magazine!

From July 30, 2024

Bercy Is Waiting for Biles

By Christy Sandmaier

There was an air surrounding Simone Biles at the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium as she entered the building for her first international event since the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Now, just days from now, Bercy Arena, site of the gymnastics events in Paris, is waiting. And the World is watching and wondering what storyline Simone Biles will write.

In Antwerp, her status in the sport as the Greatest of All Time was not only secured, but rose to a level we may never again see in gymnastics. Unparalleled in her performance, and back on the world stage once again—this time on her own terms—Biles left the 2023 World Championships as a 30-time medalist, upping her own dominant game to 37 total in World and Olympic competition. It was unprecedented and historic, with the energy and emotion of the entire Championship captured as The Queen once again took her place atop the podium.

Biles first returned to the competition floor at the 2023 Core Hydration Classic and looked as if she never left, sending her Yurchenko double pike into the stratosphere, winning by over five points, and all-but silencing anyone who ever questioned her ability to be the absolute best in the world once again. Three weeks later at the Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships in San Jose, Biles looked absolutely undeniable, capturing a record eighth All-Around crown—her smile and her joy back.

Because of that and the legacy that preceded her, her All-Around quest in Antwerp was framed by the highest of global expectations and elevated to a level of excitement that only a competitor like Biles brings to the floor. In a moment seen around the world that led the capacity crowd on their feet, many in tears, Biles captured her sixth World All-Around title. It was a competition for the ages—the bar raised by Biles herself and her competitors as well.

As she hit her final pose on floor, the score was nothing more than a mere formality. There was simply an aura around Biles from the get-go, almost as if she was performing in a dream. Except this was real, complete with a standing ovation, a few tears on the podium (though she later said she had something in her eye) and once again, gold. Yes, this was Biles on her own terms. Trusting herself in a dominating and record breaking performance that may well never be matched. Heading into Paris, Biles is the frontrunner for All-Around glory at the Games, and all signs indicate she’ll once again be poised to capture the starring role. Her legacy in the sport is secure and second to none. She is the absolute best in the world and the absolute best athlete this sport has ever seen in women’s competition.

At Worlds, her competition was about one more title, one more moment on her terms—standing centerfloor and taking her place in history once again while relishing the experience itself. “The gold medal means everything. It means strength, courage, the fight, tenacity,” she said following the All-Around. “It has been such a long journey to get back here and feel comfortable and confident to compete again. I won my first worlds here 10 years ago and now today again, so that’s really special.”

Her 2024 debut in Hartford at the Core Hydration Classic and her two-day competition in Fort Worth at the Xfinity U.S. Championships left no doubt she’s ready for the Games. And in Minneapolis at one of the most emotional and competitive Olympic Trials we’ve ever seen, she made her third Olympic team by miles, punctuated by posting the highest score in two days of All-Around competition to earn an automatic berth on the team with a combined 117.225. Biles, 27, will be the oldest female American gymnast to compete at the Olympics in 72 years and will carry an aura of greatness, anticipation and excitement into what promises to be an absolutely historic Olympic Games.

Referring to the team’s silver medal in Tokyo and the collective challenges each 2020 team member faced in their own journey there and in the lead up to the Paris Games, Biles told the media after the competition: “This is definitely our redemption tour. I feel like we all have more to give, and our Tokyo performances weren’t the best. We weren’t under the best circumstances either. But, I feel like we have a lot of weight on our shoulders to go out there and prove that we’re better athletes, we’re more mature, we’re smarter, we’re more consistent.”

Tokyo taught her (and reminded all of us) so much about the importance of putting an athlete’s mental health in focus and first, and by now, we all remember her journey. Heading into the Tokyo Olympic Games, Biles was dubbed by virtually all in the sport as the G.O.A.T., – Greatest of All Time. From winning streaks to medal count to name-bearing skills, she was called ‘super-human’ in the media. Under the Olympic spotlight following her five-medal (four gold, one bronze) performance in Rio, Biles once again became the face of the Games – expected to become the most accomplished gymnast of all time. She would indeed leave an everlasting mark from those Games. It just wouldn’t be for medals. Rather, for the importance of mental health.

Opening up on Instagram after an unusually shaky prelims round, Biles said she was feeling the pressure. Then she seemed to lose her place in the air in rotation one of Team Finals on vault, and ultimately pulled out of the competition all together. “I didn’t quit… my mind and body are simply not in sync,” Biles would explain to the world. Gymnastics fans were largely in her corner, supporting her and thanking her for her bravery. But the comment sections on posts from outlets like Sports Illustrated to People showed the nasty side of armchair quarterbacks who criticized her withdrawal. It seemed people forgot that Biles, while easily one of the most extraordinary athletes of all time, is also first and foremost, a human being.

And it would be Biles who would ultimately have the last word to her critics, both on the competition floor and through the message she delivered on publicly recognizing the importance of mental and physical health. In what was perhaps the most anticipated and most-watched moment of the Games, on the final day of gymnastics competition in Tokyo, Biles rose to the occasion in every way, winning bronze on beam, and then ultimately stepped outside the spotlight of competition for two years.

Seeing her smile back inside the SAP Center at the U.S. Championships in San Jose in 2023 was inspiring to say the very least. This was not the same Simone we saw leading up to Tokyo – there was a genuine competitive spirit, gratefulness and appreciation throughout her own performances and across the sidelines as she cheered on her World Champions Centre teammates. “Every time I come out here, I feel like I’m in a fever dream,” she said. “I feel like nothing’s real. I knew I did a good floor routine, but as soon as I got off and saw the score, I was like, ‘Damn, I need to see that routine.’ Because I wasn’t sure. I’m in the moment. But it doesn’t feel real for some reason. I just, seriously, can’t believe I’m out here competing again. I’m proud of myself for that.”

Yes, this was Biles on her own terms. Trusting herself in a dominating and record-breaking performance that may well never be matched. And a new and beautiful page of history. “Trusting the process and [my coaches], I knew I’d be back,” Biles said.

She’s back and she’s better than ever. And Paris is waiting for her.

Yes, The Queen is about to be in Bercy and as long as Paris is on her terms, no matter the outcome, she’ll be golden.