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How Simone Biles did at women’s gymnastics qualifying

Simone Biles, one of the greatest gymnasts of all time, is among the favorites to win the women’s all-around competition – she has not lost one since 2013 – as well as the floor exercise, vault and balance beam events.
However, an apparent lower leg injury she sustained in warmups on Sunday could complicate those plans.
Biles began her quest to add to her Olympic medal collection as part of Team USA’s all-around. She is joined on the team by reigning Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera. Lee, Chiles and Carey all won medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The 16-year-old Rivera is the 2023 U.S. junior champion.
After an excellent initial performance on the beam, Biles appeared to tweak something in her lower leg as she did a tumbling run while warming up for the floor exercise. After getting her ankle taped, Biles gutted her way through the floor, vault and uneven bars events to lead Team USA to the top spot in team qualifying.
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The United States – with a total of 172.296 points – had the highest team score by a comfortable margin, followed by Italy, China and Brazil.
The qualification round also determined which gymnasts from the U.S. advance to the individual all-around competition, as well as the other individual events.
Biles, obviously, was Team USA’s top all-around qualifier with a total of 59.566 points on the four disciplines. The second spot came down to the last competitor in the last event, the uneven bars. Lee edged Chiles by 0.067.
So for the first time ever, one country will have two Olympic all-around champions competing against each other in an Olympic final.
In addition to Biles and Lee in the all-around, the U.S. placed the maximum of two gymnasts in every one of the individual events except uneven bars.
Here are the top-scoring American women in qualifying:
Simone Biles opened her Paris Olympics by closing out the balance beam rotation for the U.S., and she absolutely crushed it by scoring 14.733.
Biles completed her floor routine — which included two skills named after her — with a taped left ankle after leaving briefly with team doctor, Dr. Marcia Faustin, before her rotation. If Biles was hurting, it didn’t affect her gymnastics. She delivered the highest-scoring routine on floor exercise so far (14.600).
Cecile Landi, one of Biles’ coaches, said after Sunday’s qualifying session that Biles’ left calf that was bothering her, but added, “she felt better at the end.”
In the vault, Biles did her signature Yurchenko double pike, a move so difficult few men even do it, and scored 15.800.
She finished with only a slight mistake on uneven bars, where she wobbled briefly on a handstand. “Yeah,” Biles quipped after her score, a 14.433, posted. “That’s good.”
Biles ended up qualifying for the individual finals in every event except the bars.
The men’s team final is Monday, July 29, at 11:30 a.m. ET (5:30 p.m. Paris time). The women’s team final follows on Tuesday, July 30, at 12:15 p.m. ET (at 6:15 p.m. Paris time).
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