Artistic Gymnastics at the 2024 Summer Olympics

Gymnastics competitions were held at the Accor Arena, a noted indoor sports and music venue in Paris. It was renamed as the Bercy Arena for the duration of the Olympics. One of the main stories of the Games was the return of star gymnast Simone Biles. After her four golds in 2016, she had struggled with physical and mental issues during Tokyo 2020, winning silver and bronze, but having had much higher expectations. Biles returned to form at the 2023 World Championships and made a successful Olympic return with three golds and a silver in Paris. She claimed both individual and team all-around gold, won the vault and came second in the floor exercise. This made her only the seventh Olympic gymnast with seven Olympic gold medals, and the first to achieve that since Nikolay Andrianov in 1980. On the men’s side, the star of the competition was Shinnosuke Oka, who won individual and team all-around gold, and was first in the horizontal bar and third in the parallel bars.

Controversy ensued after the women’s floor exercise. Romania’s Ana Bărbosu had first won the bronze, but a protest by Jordan Chiles’ coach was allowed and Chiles received the bronze during the ceremony. That decision was later reversed for having been made too late, a verdict confirmed by a hearing for the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), and eventually Bărbosu received the bronze.

Several nations experienced their first Olympic gymnastics success in Paris. Carlos Yulo won two individual golds on the floor and the vault, also the first ever Olympic gymnastics medals for his nation (Philippines). Similarly, Rhys McClenaghan won Ireland’s first ever Olympic gymnastics medal by winning the pommelled horse. French-Algerian Kaylia Nemour won the uneven bars to earn the first ever gymnastics gold for Algeria. Neymour’s was also the first Olympic gymnastics medal for any African nation. Kazakhstan and Colombia also medaled in the sport for the first time.