The world’s greatest gymnast, Simone Biles, has bowed out of scheduled Olympic events for the third time this week. On Tuesday, she removed herself from women’s team competition. On Thursday, Biles said she would not participate in the individual all-around final.
On Friday — Saturday in Tokyo — U.S.A. Gymnastics issued a statement indicating that Biles would not participate this weekend in the uneven bars or the vault, either. She will continue to be evaluated to determine her availability for her final two events, the floor exercise on Monday and balance beam on Tuesday.
Biles will be replaced in the vault by MyKayla Skinner. Suni Lee, who already qualified, will represent the U.S. on the uneven bars this weekend. But no additional American gymnasts qualified for the floor exercise or balance beam. That means if Biles does not compete, the U.S. is out of those events.
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Today, after further consultation with medical staff, Simone Biles has decided to withdraw from the event finals for vault and the uneven bars. She will continue to be evaluated daily to determine whether to compete in the finals for floor exercise and balance beam. MyKayla Skinner, who had the fourth-highest score in vault during qualifications, will compete in vault finals for the U.S. alongside Jade Carey, who finished with the second-highest score. We remain in awe of Simone, who continues to handle this situation with courage and grace, and all of the athletes who have stepped up during these unexpected circumstances. Biles, the five-time world champion and reigning Olympic all-around champion. The result ends a decade of dominance in the event for the American team, which won gold in 2012 and 2016.
After further consultation with medical staff, Simone Biles has decided to withdraw from the event finals for vault and the uneven bars. She will continue to be evaluated daily to determine whether to compete in the finals for floor exercise and balance beam. pic.twitter.com/kWqgZJK4LJ
— USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) July 31, 2021
When asked about her withdrawals this week, Biles said she did so “to focus on my well-being and, you know, there is more to life than gymnastics,” she said. “It is very unfortunate that it had to happen at this stage because I definitely wanted this Olympics to go a little bit better, but we’re gonna take it one day at a time, and we’ll see how the rest goes.”
