Tokyo Olympics: Simone Biles is pulled OUT of gymnastics team finals after shock error on vault

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Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles took a cue from tennis pro Naomi Osaka by pulling out of the team final after a shock error on her first event, insisting that she needed to ‘focus on her mental health’ because ‘there is more to life than just’ sport.  

Speaking about her sensational exit from competition, which cleared the way for Team USA’s Russian rivals to claim gold in a dramatic upset, the 24-year-old revealed that it came as a result of her personal mental health struggles and her desire to prioritize her ‘wellbeing’. 

‘To focus on my wellbeing,’ she told reporters of her reasons for pulling out of the competition following a sensational flub on the vault, echoing the statement issued by Naomi, 23, when she pulled out of the French Open earlier this year because of her own mental health struggles. 

Shrugging, Simone added: ‘And you know, there’s more to life than just gymnastics.

‘It is very unfortunate that it has to happen at this stage because I definitely wanted this Olympics to go a little bit better but again, we’ll take it one day at a time and we’re going to see how the rest goes.’  

The gymnast also insisted that her decision to pull out of the competition after just one event – when she was due to take part in all four – was made, in part, to help her team, saying that she ‘didn’t want to risk the team medal’ with ‘her screw up’. 

‘I thought it was best that these girls took over the job which they absolutely did,’ she continued, saying that the shock upset made them ‘stronger’ as a team. ‘They are Olympic silver medalists now and they should be really proud of themselves now for how well they did last minute.’ 

Despite claiming a silver medal alongside her teammates, who were left on the verge of tears when Simone withdrew, the sporting superstar – who is widely known as the GOAT thanks to her impressive list of accolades – insisted the second-place finish was ‘nothing to do with her’, instead giving full credit to her fellow Team USA athletes, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee, and Grace McCallum. 

‘This medal is all of them and the coaches and nothing to do with me,’ she said.

Simone – who had been expected to lead the US to gold in the team event – was withdrawn from the lineup after flubbing her vault in the opening minutes of the team final competition in Tokyo on Tuesday, however she believes that she will be fit to take part in the individual all-around this Thursday, despite officials stating that she will have to undergo ‘daily assessments’ to determine her competition status.   

The gymnast admitted that she is ‘dealing with some things internally’, but vowed to return to competition in time for the all-around final, having gone into the Olympics as the favorite to win the gold.   

‘I’m OK,’ Simone said. ‘Just dealing with some things internally which will get fixed out in the next couple of days.’ 

When asked by the BBC whether she is planning to take part in the upcoming all-around final on Thursday, she replied simply: ‘Yes.’ 

However, when speaking to Today, Simone confessed that her determination to take part in the event – where she would be defending her championship title – is not enough to cement her place in the lineup, saying: ‘We’re going to take it day by day, and we’re just going to see.’  

She went on: ‘Physically, I feel good, I’m in shape. Emotionally, that kind of varies on the time and moment. Coming to the Olympics and being head star isn’t an easy feat, so we’re just trying to take it one day at a time and we’ll see.’ 

Opening up about her determination to prioritize her mental health Simone praised the other athletes, like Naomi, who have spoken out about their own struggles, insisting that it has become a more important issue than ever, suggesting that sporting stars who are grappling with these kinds of issues are more likely to injure themselves during competition.

‘I have to focus on my mental health,’ Simone said. ‘I just think mental health is more prevalent in sports right now… we have to protect our minds and our bodies and not just go out and do what the world wants us to do.’

She admitted that her confidence has taken a serious knock as a result of her mental health issues, confessing: ‘I don’t trust myself as much anymore… maybe it’s getting older. There were a couple of days when everybody tweets you and you feel the weight of the world. 

‘We’re not just athletes, we’re people at the end of the day and sometimes you just have to step back. ‘I didn´t want to go out and do something stupid and get hurt. ‘I feel like a lot of athletes speaking up has really helped. It’s so big, it´s the Olympic Games, at the end of the day we don´t want to be carried out of there on a stretcher.

‘You have to be there 100 per cent or 120 per cent or you’re going to hurt yourself.’  

In a poignant twist, Simone’s sensational exit from the team final came just hours after Naomi – who is representing her home nation of Japan at the Tokyo Games – crashed out of the Olympic competition in the third round in yet another dramatic upset.   

Simone’s withdrawal from the competition came just moments after she made a very uncharacteristic error on vault that saw her almost fall backwards. 

Speaking about the uncharacteristic error, Simone confessed that she felt as though she had ‘robbed’ her teammates of a fighting chance to claim the gold, saying: ‘It’s really unfortunate to have a score like that go up there for the team. I feel I robbed them… We could have been a little bit higher in the rankings. 

‘I didn’t do my job. They came out and they stepped up. They did what they needed to do.’ 

After completing the skill, Simone was seen going into a quick huddle with her coach, Cecile Landi, which appears to be the moment that she decided to withdraw from the competition.  

She left the stadium with her trainer and was closely followed by medical staff – sparking fears that she had sustained a serious injury. Moments later, it was announced that she had been pulled out of Team USA’s uneven bars lineup, and shortly after, it was revealed that she had been taken out of the competition altogether. 

Video captured the moment that the gymnast shared the news with her three teammates, telling them that she was ‘sorry’, but insisting that they were ‘going to do great’ because they had ‘been training for this their whole lives’. 

‘Look, you guys go out there and do what you’re trained to do,’ she told them. ‘It is what it is. I’m sorry, I love you guys, but you’re going to be just fine.’ 

She then pulled each of her teammates into a hug, before reassuring them once again: ‘You guys have trained your whole entire lives for this, it’s fine. I’ve been to an Olympics, I’ll be fine, this is your first. Go out there and kick a**, OK?’ 

According to NBC’s commentators, Simone’s coach confirmed that the athlete had not been injured, explaining that her withdrawal from the final was the result of a ‘mental issue’; USA Gymnastics later released a statement blaming the decision on an unspecified ‘medical’ problem while noting that Simone would be ‘assessed daily’ before the individual finals, which begin on Thursday with the all-around competition. 

‘Simone Biles has withdrawn from the team final competition due to a medical issue,’ the statement said. ‘She will be assessed daily to determine medical clearance for future competitions.’ 

The gymnastics legend qualified for all five individual event finals – the all-around, floor exercise, beam, vault, and uneven bars – and she had been hoping to add six more gold medals to her already-impressive tally of Olympic titles. Her dream of leading the team to its third consecutive win has now been dashed, however many still consider her to be the favorite to claim victory in the all-around. 

However, Simone’s own feelings about her ability and readiness to take part will not be the only factor taken into consideration and she will need to get the all-clear from USA Gymnastics before she can step out onto the floor for any of the event finals. 

It is not known when USAG will announce whether or not Simone is due to compete.  

The individual women’s all-around competition – which will see the top 24 qualifying gymnasts competing head-to-head – is set to take place on Thursday, while the vault and uneven bars events are scheduled for Sunday, August 1, the floor exercise for Monday, August 2, and the balance beam for Tuesday, August 3. 

Simone had gone into the Games hoping to claim six gold medals, including a team victory – which would have made her the most successful female Olympian of all time – however that dream has now been dashed by Team USA’s second-place finish. 

But while the six golds goal is now out of reach, Simone could still equal the record of nine held by Russian gymnast Larisa Latynina over three Olympic Games – Melbourne 1956, Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964 – if she goes on to compete in all five event finals.     

News of Simone’s exit from the competition sent shockwaves around the arena – and left commentators stunned, with Today show anchor Hoda Kotb, who is close friends with the gymnast, tearing up as she discussed the news with her co-hosts. 

Following the end of the competition, the 56-year-old led the public outpouring of support for Simone, praising her as a ‘class act’. 

‘Someone said it best. @SimoneBiles already won. She is a class act,’ Hoda wrote on Twitter. ‘Withdrew from team competition after vault… stayed and cheered on her teammates… got them chalk for their hands.. encouraged.. hugged them. She already won. Congrats on the silver medal!’ 

Simone’s former Olympic teammate Laurie Hernandez, who competed alongside her in Rio in 2016 but missed out on a spot at the trials for this year’s Games, also expressed support for the star gymnast, sending her well wishes for a speedy recovery. 

‘At the end of the day, mentally, physically, we just want to make sure that she’s ok,’ Laurie said while helping to provide commentary on the competition. 

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman, who competed with Simone and Laurie in Rio, also weighed in on her former teammate’s shock withdrawal from the competition, telling Today: ‘I feel sick to my stomach; it’s horrible.

‘I’m obviously praying that she’ll be able to compete in the all-around final.’ 

She added: ‘You know, she’s human, and I think sometimes people forget that. And Simone, just like everyone else, is doing the best that she can.’

Meanwhile Mykayla Skinner, who qualified for Tokyo alongside Simone, and competed in the qualifiers, but missed out on any individual event finals, voiced her ‘heartbreak’ over the gymnast’s shock vault error and exit from the team event, saying: ‘My heart broke for her; I can’t imagine what she’s going through.’ 

Speaking about Simone’s shock error on vault, the 24-year-old added: ‘I don’t really know what happened… I’m not sure if she hurt something recently.’ 

However the gymnast’s decision to withdraw from competition also sparked a furious debate on social media, where some people praised her for highlighting the importance of mental health care, while others accused her of ‘abandoning’ her younger teammates at a pivotal moment, suggesting that she should have allowed one of the alternates to step into her place instead of taking part in the opening stages of the final.  

Simone, who made history earlier this year when she became the first-ever female gymnast to perform the incredibly risky and complicated Yurchenko double pike vault, stunned spectators when she made a very uncharacteristic error in the team final, bailing out of the skill she had planned to do while in mid-air. 

The gymnastics GOAT was supposed to execute a Yurchenko vault with two-and-a-half twists, but bailed out at the last second and only performed one-and-a-half twists, resulting in a much lower starting score.    

To add insult to injury, Simone’s knees then buckled on the landing, propelling her towards the mat – although she narrowly avoided falling to the ground. 

Her resulting score – 13.766 – is the lowest she has received in years. During qualifications, she received a score of 15.183. 

Simone returned to the stadium as the dramatic news of her withdrawal was shared, putting on her tracksuit over her leotard in a move that confirmed her exit from the competition.  

Jordan, 20, then stepped up to the uneven bars to take her place along with Sunisa and Grace, having already fallen into second place behind rivals Russian Olympic Committee who scored highest on the vault.  

Meanwhile, Simone took on the role of cheerleader, standing alongside her teammates – all of whom are first-time Olympians – providing support and assistance as they competed the final three events without her. 

But sadly her enthusiastic cheers were not enough to propel the US to a win, despite Jordan, 20, Grace, 18, and Suni, 18, all putting up impressive scores on both the uneven bars and the balance beam. They went into the final rotation, floor exercise, trailing Russia by just a few tenths of a point, however any hope they had of overtaking their rivals came to a crashing halt when Simone’s fellow Texan Jordan fell during one of her tumbling passes. 

The error left her with a score of just 11.7 and cleared the way for the ROC’s gymnasts to storm ahead to gold, with all of its athletes executing impressively clean routines on the floor exercise. 

Team USA’s sensational decision to pull Simone out of the competition came just days after the athlete opened up about her struggle to cope with the pressure of this year’s Olympics.   

Following the team qualifiers – during which the US put on a very lackluster performance that saw them qualifying in second place, while the Russian Olympic Committee finished in first – Simone took to Instagram to share her upset over her performance, while revealing that she ‘feels like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders’. 

In qualifying for the finals, the U.S. team of gold-medal hopefuls were beaten into second place by Russia‘s athletes with Simone and teammates uncharacteristically faulting during their disciplines.    

‘Now to prepare for finals. It wasn’t an easy day or my best but I got through it,’ Simone admitted on Instagram.

‘I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times.

‘I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn’t affect me but damn sometimes it’s hard hahaha! The Olympics is no joke!’ 

Simone’s withdrawal from the competition seriously damaged the US’s chances of earning gold in the team final, with Russia’s gymnasts pushing ahead in the wake of the gymnastics GOAT’s exit. 

The decision to pull her out of the final has also left the US with just three athletes, first-time Olympians Suni, Jordan, and Grace, meaning that they all had to compete on every event. 

Initially, only Simone and Grace had been expected to take part in the all-around – meaning that they were the only two gymnasts who would have competed on all four apparatus: vault, uneven bars, beam, and floor exercise. 

Instead, Jordan was forced to replace Simone on the uneven bars and the balance beam, while Suni stepped into her shoes on the floor.   

As well as the added pressure on Team USA’s other three athletes, the squad’s overall score also took a huge hit; Simone’s routines on all four events are typically among those with the highest potential points, particularly when it comes to the vault, beam, and floor exercise. 

Even on the uneven bars, which is usually her worst event, Simone is leaps and bounds ahead of the majority of her competitors, a fact that she proved by qualifying for the individual event final. 

Despite the devastating result of her personal performance in the final, Simone made heroic efforts to keep her spirits up, and was seen joking and laughing with teammate and fellow Texan Jordan – showing no clear sign of any injury or pain. 

Following the third rotation, the US was trailing Russia by just eight tenths of a point, having put in a tremendous performance on the beam, where Simone is typically the highest-scoring athlete. 

The final event in the competition – the floor exercise – will now determine the overall result, and reveal whether the US can surge ahead to win gold despite the absence of its most talented athlete. 

Team USA’s hopes of finishing in first place suffered another dramatic blow when Simone’s home gym teammate and close friend Jordan, 20, fell during her floor routine, resulting in a score of just 11.7 – effectively ending the squad’s chances of winning.  

Grace, 18, and Suni, 18, executed fairly clean routines with few mistakes but it was not enough to push the US ahead of Russia’s gymnasts, all of whom completed stellar floor exercises – ending with veteran athlete Angelina Melnikova, who broke down in tears as she ended her competition.