Simone Biles has suffered a double disappointment at the Paris Olympics after she missed out on a gold medal in the balance beam and floor exercise.
The US gymnastics sensation took a silver medal in Monday afternoon’s floor exercise after a routine that included a couple of costly steps out of bounds, failing to repeat her gold in Rio de Janeiro eight years ago.
Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade captured gold, becoming the first gymnast to beat Biles in a floor final in a major international competition.
Olympics: Latest updates from Paris on day 10
Simone Biles during the women’s balance beam final. Pic: PA
Andrade scored 14.166, narrowly ahead of Biles at 14.133 while Jordan Chiles earned the bronze.
Biles, 27, had already secured golds in the team all-around, individual all-round, and vault events, and was widely expected to secure her fourth of the games in one of her events on day 10.
Earlier, Biles proved she is only mortal after all when she fell off the beam midway through her routine in the women’s balance beam final – which was won by Italian Alice D’Amato.
There was a loud “ohhh” from the thousands of fans – including NFL great Tom Brady – inside a packed Bercy Arena as she lost her balance and had to hop off the beam and on to the mat.
Simone Biles falls during her routine.
Pic: Yomiuri Shimbun/AP
Biles recovered to finish her performance and received a score of 13.100, tying her with US teammate Sunisa Lee for fourth, but slipped one place further down by the end of the final.
As she waited for her score, Biles rolled her eyes in seeming annoyance knowing she was not going to finish on the podium.
Her total was well below D’Amato’s winning score of 14.366, with China’s Zhou Yaqin taking silver and another Italian, Manila Esposito, coming third.
D’Amato became Italy’s first Olympic champion in women’s gymnastics.
The most decorated gymnast in history, she won her seventh gold medal, and third of the Paris games, on Saturday with victory in the women’s gymnastic vault event.
Simone Biles gets back on the beam after falling off during her performance. Pic: Reuters
This summer’s competition has been a triumphant return to the Olympics for Biles, who was one of the biggest stories of Tokyo three years ago when, as the favourite to win multiple golds, she pulled out of most of her events.
She later revealed she was suffering from “the twisties”, where a gymnast loses sense of where they are in the air.
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She faced high-profile criticism following her decision to drop out and has since been working with a therapist in Paris.
