For the first time since the 2008 Beijing Games, the Russian women's artistic gymnastics team (which in Tokyo is not Russia, but officially ROC, the acronym in English for the Russian Olympic Committee), defeated the United States, winner in 2012 and 2016, in the grand finale.
He did it by an abysmal difference, 3,432 points, and thanks to the unexpected eclipse of Simone Biles, who only participated in one of the four devices, the jump.
For the first time in her career Simone Biles looks so rushed in a jump that she goes off on a tangent. He leaves the Amanar (deadly on the plank after entering Yurchenko and two and a half pirouettes) in just one and a half pirouettes, and, despite everything, with his feline sense, he falls on his feet. He never does things without art, not even the worst. Due to its failure, the United States comes out with a disadvantage of the first apparatus of the four in the team final. It is the last in which Simone Biles is seen dressed as a gymnast, a red, white and blue leotard. The best gymnast in history, the woman who has revolutionized her sport inside and out, is eclipsed. He disappears from the track and only returns a few minutes later, a white tracksuit covering his work suit, some beach flip-flops on his feet, and socks. Immediately,the United States team announces its withdrawal "for medical reasons", which does not specify, Simone Biles will not participate as a gymnast in the following three apparatus (in order, uneven bars, balance beam and floor), but as a cheerleader, jaleadora,
number one
fan
. Like a girl happy to help her companions. And she makes so many leaps that just seeing her like this suggests that the "medical problem" is not an injury.
And his strength is so great that the apparently imperturbable, cold as Russia is cold, a quartet of Russian women (Melnikova, Urazova, Ajaimova and Listunova), loses their nerves on the balance beam, the third apparatus, which has reached an advantage. 2.5 points after some asymmetrical in which for the United States only the great Sunisa Lee shines. Two of the Russians, the best of them, Melnikova, and Uzarova, fall off the bar. Even the most failed Americans, McCallum and Jordan Chiles, solidly save the way. The North Americans reach the ground with only 0.8 points of disadvantage. Biles gets excited, screams, hugs, talks incessantly. She looks like a happy chick. The comeback is possible.
His strength, even in flip flops, in white tracksuit, is tremendous. It is as if overwhelmed by having tried to be what the whole universe thought she was, the perfect, strong, tireless woman, capable of assuming all causes as her own, she had reached a breaking point, collapsed by an unbearable weight in some Games Olympics played without an audience, in Japan, in the midst of unusual attention. Simone Biles stops being Simone Biles and dances. Until precisely her best friend, Jordan Chiles, who trains with her in the gym in Spring, Texas, falls to the ground. Not the
ohhh
tremendous, and its echo, released by the North American journalists of disappointment, is as expressive as the face of Biles, who minutes later rises to the podium for the first silver medal in his Olympic history (he left Rio, his hatching, with four golds and a bronze) and it even seems that he is moved, inevitably, who does not, with the notes of Tchaikovsky's piano concerto that replaces the Russian anthem to celebrate the victory of his gymnasts, who are not Russia, but ROC.
A Biles, waiting to know his status, is ahead of the final of the full year on Thursday and the finals by apparatus between Sunday and Monday.
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