Simone Biles is on the brink of joining an elite group of the greatest female Olympians as she competes for her eighth and ninth titles in the balance beam and floor exercise finals on the final day of artistic gymnastics at the Paris Games.
The American superstar, who has already claimed gold in the team, all-around, and vault events, is the favorite for the floor exercise but faces a tougher challenge on the balance beam, where even a small error can mean the difference between gold and no medal at all.
If Biles secures victories in both events, she will tie with U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky and Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina for the most Olympic golds won by a female athlete, with nine each.
Biles will face stiff competition on the beam from her teammate Sunisa Lee and China’s Zhou Yaqin, who are among the few women this year to have executed more difficult routines than Biles.
Zhou was the top beam qualifier with a 14.866, just 0.133 ahead of Biles, while third-placed qualifier Rebeca Andrade of Brazil has the lowest difficulty potential of the top four gymnasts but is known for her clean execution.
Only one of Lee’s three beam performances in Paris so far matched Biles’ in difficulty, but the fourth qualifier and all-around bronze medallist edged her star teammate on the apparatus in that competition.
Biles won beam bronze in the last two Olympics, including in Tokyo where she performed a modified routine without twisting, the source of the mental block that forced her to withdraw from most of those Games’ finals.
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Biles enjoys a difficulty advantage on the floor exercise with her signature tumbling, including a stratospheric double back flip with three twists, meaning the true race on the apparatus will most likely be for silver and bronze.
Contenders include Andrade, who could be saving difficulty upgrades for the final, Romania’s Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, who has performed the second most difficult routine so far in Paris, and American Jordan Chiles who qualified third ahead of Maneca-Voinea.
The male gymnasts conclude Olympic competition on Monday with finals on the parallel bars and horizontal bar.
China’s Zou Jingyuan seeks to retain his Tokyo gold, qualifying in first on parallel bars with a stunning 16.200, almost a point ahead of second-placed compatriot Zhang Boheng.
Zhang led the field on the horizontal bar in the preliminaries with 15.133, 0.533 ahead of fourth qualifier and 2020 silver medallist Tin Srbic of Croatia.