PARIS — Simone Biles wrapped up her final day of the Paris Olympic s with more hardware for the greatest gymnast of her generation.
The woman who didn’t think she’d even be here a couple years ago will leave Paris — and perhaps her final Olympics — with three golds and a silver, earned Monday when she placed second in the floor exercise.
It marked the first time in her career that Biles did not win the floor exercise at a major competition. She finished second to Rebeca Andrade of Brazil. Third went to American gymnast Jordan Chiles, who was bumped to bronze when the U.S. coaches asked for a review of her degree of difficulty on the routine.
The review changed her score just enough to push her onto the podium, where the three Black women posed together four days after Biles, Andrade and Sunisa Lee, who is Hmong-American, stood in the same spot following the all-around. Their collective success is symbolic of a sport that is becoming more diverse and more inclusive at the highest level.
Prior to the floor exercise, Biles and Lee failed to medal on the balance beam. Both gymnasts made mistakes and wondered if Paris organizers’ decision not to play music during the events created a distracting eerie silence.
Biles is now an 11-time Olympic medalist and hasn’t ruled out trying to compete in Los Angeles in 2028.
A look at some of the highlights of Day 10 of the Paris Olympics:
Noah Lyles had no problem in his opening 200-meter heat. It was a 20.19-second, no-drama romp around the curve that was routine. So, nothing like his photo finish .005-second victory in the 100 on Sunday night.
Lyles beat defending Olympic champion Andre De Grasse of Canada in the 200 by .11 seconds.
Lyles is trying to become the first man to double since Usain Bolt did it for the third time at the Rio Games in 2016. Carl Lewis is the last U.S. man to pull it off in the 100-200, back in 1984 in Los Angeles.
Also advancing in the 200 were Americans Erriyon Knighton (20.00) and Kenny Bednarek, who ran 19.97 and could very well be Lyles’ biggest challenger for the final on Thursday.
Valarie Allman made it back-to-back golds as the American won women’s discus. She also won at the Tokyo Games.
Allman fouled on her first attempt, landing the discus wide of the right-side boundary, but took the lead on her second try with a throw of 68.74. She put the competition totally out of reach with a 69.50 on her fourth attempt.
Also, Keely Hodgkinson gave Britain its first athletics gold medal of the Paris Olympics by winning the women’s 800-meter final.
The victory made the 22-year-old Hodgkinson the third British woman to win Olympic 800-meter gold, joining Anne Packer at the 1964 Tokyo Games and Kelly Holmes in Athens in 2004.
Two U.S. teams fell on the sand at Eiffel Tower Stadium, with Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss losing to Canada in the women’s quarterfinals a few hours after Chase Budinger and Miles Evans lost to Norway in the men’s.
Only Miles Evans and Andy Benesh advanced on the day, joining Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes in the elite eight.
Kloth and Nuss are ranked No. 2 in the world, and Nuss said she was “definitely a little heartbroken.”
Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes beat Nuss and Kloth 21-19, 21-18, leaving the country that has won four of the last five women’s gold medals with just one team in the bracket.
Budinger, a former NBA player, and Evans lost in straight sets to Norway, the defending Olympic champions. Already at Paris, five-time Olympian and Rio de Janeiro gold medalist Laura Ludwig of Germany has been eliminated, and the 42-year-old Herrera has said he will retire.
The Seine River was determined safe enough to swim in and Olympic triathletes plunged into the murky water for the mixed relay event after organizers said bacteria levels in the long-polluted Paris waterway were at acceptable levels.
The plan to hold the swimming portion of the triathlons and the marathon swimming events in the Seine was an ambitious one as swimming in the river has, with some exceptions, been off-limits since 1923 because it has been too toxic.
Water quality tests were reviewed Sunday night and the results indicated the water quality at the triathlon site had improved over the preceding hours and was within the limits mandated by World Triathlon by Monday morning.
In a very close sprint finish, the team from Germany won the gold medal in the team relay. The United States took silver and Britain clinched bronze.
The decision to allow the event to go forward with swims in the Seine came after Belgium’s Olympic committee announced Sunday that it would withdraw its team from the mixed relay triathlon after one of its competitors who swam in the river last week fell ill. Another three triathletes — of the more than 100 who competed in the men’s and women’s races last Wednesday — became sick in the following days, though it’s unclear whether the water was to blame.
Juanlu Sanchez came off the bench to lift Spain into a record-equaling fifth Olympic men’s soccer final. Sanchez scored in the 85th minute at Stade de Marseille to seal a 2-1 win over Morocco.
Spain will face host France in the final on Friday. France advanced with a 3-1 victory over Egypt in the second semifinal.
Morocco led 1-0 at halftime after the tournament’s leading scorer Soufiane Rahimi converted a penalty in the 37th.
Spain evened the score in the 65th after Fermin Lopez showed quick feet in the box and fired a left-footed shot low in the bottom corner. It was the Barcelona midfielder’s fourth goal of the tournament and over-exuberant celebrations earned him a yellow card after kicking the corner flag and breaking it in two.
It was Lopez’s assist that set up Sanchez to sweep his winning goal low into the far corner.
Spain, which won gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, lost in the final at the Tokyo Games three years ago to Brazil.
The British trio of Katy Marchant, Sophie Capewell and Emma Finucane shattered the world record in the women’s team sprint while beating New Zealand in a head-to-head showdown for the gold medal to open the track cycling program.
In the three-lap race, the British trio trailed Rebecca Petch, Shaane Fulton and Ellesse Andrews after the first 250 meters. But they quickly pulled ahead after the second lap, then blitzed the last to finish in 45.196 seconds, earning their nation’s first medal inside the Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
Despite its proud sprinting tradition, the British had repeatedly missed the podium since the event’s debut in 2008.
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For more coverage of the Paris Olympics, visit https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games.
