Reuters
[Source: Reuters]
It definitely was not the ending Simone Biles was expecting as she was surprisingly upstaged in the floor exercise final by Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade — but a silver medal capped the American’s remarkable Olympic comeback.
Stepping out of bounds with both feet at the end of two of her four tumbling passes meant she missed out on the top prize in the floor final, with the sixth tenths of a point penalty she incurred making the difference between gold and silver.
That did not stop Biles from earning an 11th Olympic medal.
She also proved to be the ultimate team player as she whopped with joy and hugged Jordan Chiles tightly after her friend was promoted from fifth to the bronze-medal position following a successful enquiry submitted by the Americans right at the end of the competition.
Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, admitted that exhaustion had started to set in on the final day of a gruelling competition.
Biles was heavily favoured coming into the final given the difficulty of her high-flying floor routine but paid a heavy price for those mistakes as she lost out on winning a fourth gold medal of these Games.
Andrade claimed the top prize for producing a near flawless, albeit less difficult, display which was rewarded with a score of 14.166 from the judges.
Biles’ routine got off to a promising start when she nailed her triple twisting double back but the power she generates during the tumbling sequences left her completely stepping out of bounds on her next attempt.
She again found herself out of the marked area on her final pass.
