Simone Biles of United States in action on the Vault
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Simone Biles clinched her fifth Olympic gold medal as she made a triumphant return to the women’s gymnastics team final on Tuesday, reinforcing her status as one of the greatest just three years after withdrawing from the same event at the Tokyo Games.
Biles, the most decorated gymnast of all-time, earned the United States its 11th Olympic medal in the women’s team event with a solid performance on all four apparatus after starting off on the vault, from which she soared high into the air while executing the ‘Cheng’ to earn 14.900 points.
With the crowd rallying behind Biles and her teammates in the absence of the French team that failed to qualify for the final, USA finished an impressive 5.802 points ahead of second-placed Italy. While the Italians won their first women’s Olympic team medal since the 1928 Olympics, an incredible, high-flying vault by Rebeca Andrade landed Brazil the bronze, its first ever medal in the discipline.
