The balance beam is Biles’ least favourite apparatus and the only one on which she didn’t win gold five years ago. But,as fate would have it,it was the only apparatus she felt safe to compete on after she was unable to remove the performance gremlins which caused her to withdraw from competition on the night of the team final.
This was not Biles at her very best but it was Biles competing again,which is all she expected from herself. “I wasn’t expecting to walk away with a medal,I was just going out there to do this for me,” she said.
“I was OK with missing finals because I knew I couldn’t do it. My problem was why my body and mind weren’t in sync? What happened? Was I over tired? Where did the wires not connect?
“That was really hard because I had trained my whole life,I was physically ready,I was fine,and then this happens. It was something that was so out of my control.”
All eyes and every camera lens followed the 24-year-old American as the eight finalists walked into the arena. Dressed in a red,white and blue leotard,she performed a simplified routine with grace,power and most importantly,without mishap.
The gold went to China’s 16-year-old Chenchen Guan,a girls who describes Biles as her idol,and the silver was won by her teammate Xijing Tang. Biles surprised herself by taking bronze,her eighth Olympic medal.