Team, Women

The USA team of Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Grace McCallum were heavy favourites to take the team gold. The battle for silver and bronze seemed as if it would be between the ROC and China, who both had plenty of talented gymnasts for the big occasion.

Biles was far from her best in the qualifying competition, and was penalised for both her floor and vault exercises. As a result, the United States finished behind ROC. It was the first time since 2010 that the USA had not posted the top score in qualifying at a World Championships or Olympics. The ROC, with 2019 World Championship all-round bronze medallist Angelina Melnikova in their squad, led the Americans by 1.067 points at the end of qualifying.

A win would give the Americans their third-straight gold medal, a feat not seen since the Soviet Union won eight straight from 1952-80. The ROC started off well, however, and put the Americans under pressure from the start, and despite getting tremendous height on her vault, Biles had a bad landing and scored just 13.766. It was her lowest score on that piece of apparatus in her Olympic career, and only three gymnasts had a lower score than her in the vault. That one vault turned out to be the only appearance of Biles in the final, as she sat out the remaining rotations. Initially it was thought she had suffered an injury on landing, but as she later admitted, the only injury she suffered was to her pride and did not want to carry on. It was more a mental than physical problem.

In the second rotation, despite a 13.700 on the uneven bars by Grace McCallum, her score was bettered by ROC’s Vladislava Urazova, who scored 14.866. When Jordan Chiles, who had stepped in for Biles on the uneven bars, scored an impressive 14.166 she too was upstaged by the ROCs Angelina Melnikova with 14.933. The ROC led by two-and-a-half points at the end of rotation two, with Italy having replaced France in the bronze medal position. The USA pulled themselves back into contention at the end of the third rotation and were less than a point behind with Italy still in third place, with Great Britain making up ground in fifth.

Unfortunately, the US comeback was short-lived when Chiles, who had done so well standing in for Biles, had a disappointing 11.70 on the floor as the ROC went three points clear thanks to 14.166 from Viktoriya Listunova. With just one gymnast each left to perform, the ROC went on to secure gold, with silver going to the USA. The ROC headed the scoring on three of four pieces of apparatus, finishing only fourth on the beam. The best individual performance of the final was Urazova’s 14.866 on the uneven bars.

After three excellent performances on their last routine, the uneven bars, the British quartet snatched the bronze medal from Italy by 0.458 points. It was Britain’s first team medal since they won bronze at Amsterdam in 1928, when women’s gymnastics was first held at the Olympics.