05. August 2024  
Paris, FRA  
Artistic Gymnastics

*PARIS 2024 - WOMEN's ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS

... but also Gold for Superstar Biles in All-around and Vault!

A field laden with Olympic and World champions and rife with potential historymakers awaits in Artistic Gymnastics, also on the women's side:
Two days after her Olympic victory with the team, Simone Biles also won the individual all-around competition at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. With a dream routine on the floor, the American won the sixth Olympic gold medal of her career, relegating Rebeca Andrade from Brazil, who put up a strong fight, to second place. Bronze went to the Olympic champion from Tokyo, Sunisa LEE (USA).
<< With an impressive start/finish victory in the team final and top scores on all four apparatus, the USA girls led by superstar Simone BILES and Olympic champion Sunisa LEE outdid the entire competition: with 171.296 points, they took the team gold they had been longing for, as expected, and relegated the current European champions from ITALY to silver, thus winning their first Olympic medal.
This was also realised by the national team of BRAZIL, who took bronze by a narrow margin ahead of runner-up Great Britain. Three falls during the competition and a weak vault run at the end meant that China dropped back behind Canada in third place, followed by Romania and Japan!
Four-time 2016 Olympic champion Simone Biles, who presented herself in absolute competitive mood in the team final with top scores on vault and floor, arrived at the Games as the current all-around world champion and number one on balance beam and floor. The 27-year-old could be the first woman to win the Olympic all-around title at non-consecutive Games, isicher in fierce competition with her compatriot Sunisa Lee and Brazil's Rebeca Andrade, while ex-French Kaylia Nemour (ALG) could become Africa's first Olympic medallist in gymnastics on uneven bars. A number of other specialists such as Alexa Moreno (MEX) are also in the running for their country's first Olympic medals.

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* New, historic moments in Olympic gymnastics history,
   will also enrich the international women's gymnastics programme in Paris:

►► Not only BILES can write Olympic History! 
   ► (!) New Elements in Paris
   ►  REVIEW: Olympic & WCh All-around Results
   ►  REVIEW: Olympiac & WCh TEAM Results

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* PARIS 2024 → WOMEN's ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS

♦ OLYMPIC TEAM FINAL

* TODAY, Tuesday, July 30:    (► START LIST)
 * KURZ-REPORT --: As expected, the gymnasts from the U S A  were unbeatable on all four apparatus. This meant that the battle for the ‘remaining’ medals was also a source of tension right from the start. After the Italians got off to a relatively weak start on vault, Brazil put up an impressive fight on vault and floor with the second-best results behind the USA: things got tense and close once again when Manila Esposito made a big mistake on floor with her 21/2 screw somersault and only scored a weak 12.660. Before that, the Brazilians had to cope with Julia Soares' involuntary beam dismount, but with the highest score of the day of 15.100 for Olympic champion Rebeca ANDRADE's vault, the South Americans were able to close the gap to Italy to just 1 point, but were able to push the disappointing British team into fourth place.
China started nervously in the first round, with Qiu, Qiyuan falling after a stretched hunter somersault, and weakened on their usual favourite apparatus, beam, where vice world champion Zhou, Jaqin even crashed, and also offered a surprisingly weak difficulty profile on vault! With the second-best beam result, the Canadians passed the Chinese, who finished a disappointed sixth, as Romania and Japan behind them were also unable to keep up with the overall high standard.   ► F I G - R e p o r t

* RESULTS, Team Final:
1. U S A                  - 171,296
2. ITALY                  - 165,494
3. BRAZIL               - 164,497
    4. GREAT BRITAIN    - 164,263
    5. CANADA               - 162,432
    6. CHINA                   - 162,131
    7. ROMANIA              - 159,497
    8. JAPAN                   - 159,463
       ►  Detailed Results
.....  ►  REVIEW: Historical Balances

-: Sunday, July 28.: 
  Women's Qualification  > Women's Olympic roster
 ... after Subdivision 1 (GBR, ROU) - after SUB 2 (CHN, USA, ITA)
   ... after SUB 3 (JPN, NED), after SUB 4 (CAN, FRA, KOR) & SUB 5 (BRA, AUS)

* Short REPORT -: Highly-touted USA looked right at home in Bercy Arena, notching the highest team scores on Vault, Balance Beam, and Floor Exercise as they accumulated 172.296 points, a whopping 5.4 points over a well-balanced Italian squad paced by Alice D’Amato and Manila Esposito. The United States and Italy went 1-2 as Simone Biles (USA) qualified in first place for three individual finals in a stellar return to Olympic competition.
China emerged from the peloton of contending nations to establish themselves as podium hopefuls on the back of a magnificent performance on Uneven Bars, the team’s traditional strength.
Brazil, Japan, Canada, Great Britain and Romania also made the eight-team cutoff for the final.
2023 World bronze medallists France seemed to crumble under the pressure of performing at home, committing numerous uncharacteristic errors and bringing its Games to an early close.
       ► Startlist Sub 1 - 5
♦  (5) Final results of qualification, TEAMS (- qualified: 1 - 8)
 1. U S A - 172,296;    2. ITALY -  166,861;    3. CHINA - 166,628;   4. BRAZIL - 166,499;
5. JAPAN - 162,196;. 6. CANADA - 161,563;  7. GREAT BRITAIN - 16,830;   8. ROU - 159,497;  
9. NED - 159,096;    10. AUS - 158,964;         11. FRA - 158,797;       12. KOR - 152,496
    ► Detailed Results
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♦ OLYMPIC ALL-AROUND FINAL, WOMEN

♦ TODAY --: Thursday, August 01   (> START LIST)
                 * ... read the ► FIG AA Final PREVIEW
* Short Report --:  Simone Biles (Spring, Texas) became the first woman since 1968 to win two Olympic all-around titles, while Tokyo Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee (St. Paul, Minn.) won her second consecutive all-around medal by securing bronze Thursday night at Bercy Arena.
It was an uncharacteristically nail-biting competition, with both Biles and Lee using nearly flawless floor routines to earn their medals. Biles won with a score of 59.131, with Rebecca Andrade of Brazil second with 57.932 and Lee third with 56.465.

Biles led after the first rotation, posting a competition-leading 15.766 with her Biles II on vault to take a .666 lead over Andrade, but a break on a connection while on uneven bars in the second rotation resulted in a score of 13.733, dropping her to third overall. Andrade took over the with a 29.766, with Kaylia Nemour of Algeria second with a 29.566 and Biles in third with a 29.499. After two rotations, Alice D’Amato of Italy ranked fourth with a 28.800 and Lee was on her heels with a 27.799, on the strength of a 13.933 on vault and 14.866 on uneven bars.

The third rotation on balance beam put both Americans on an apparatus where they often yield strong scores. Biles led off with a 14.566 to retake the lead with a 44.065, with Andrade trailing with a 43.899. Lee was tied for fourth with a 42.799 after posting a 14.000 on beam, just .034 behind D’Amato in third.
The medals were to be decided on floor exercise as Lee sought to leapfrog into third. Needing a 13.534 to overtake D’Amato for bronze, she posted a 13.666 that catapulted her into what would ultimately be bronze position. Biles then sealed the deal and thrilled the crowd with her best floor routine of the Paris games to date, scoring 15.066.
With her top all-around finish on Thursday, Biles padded her already historical Olympic medal count, bringing it to nine and earning her sixth gold.
* Source: US Gymnastics
* WOMEN's INDIVIDUAL ALL-AROUND FINAL
1. BILES, Simone         (USA)   - 59,131
2. ANDRADE, Rebeca  (BRA)   - 57,932
3. LEE, Sunisa              (USA)   - 56,465
4. D'AMATO, Alice              (ITA)   - 56,333
      5. NEMOUR, Kaylia            (ALG)   - 55,899
      6. BLACK, Elsabeth           (CAN)   - 54,799
      7. QIU, Qiyuan                    (CHN)   - 54,766
      8.  KEVRIC, Helen              (GER)   - 54,598
      9. SARAIVO, Flavia            (BRA)    - 54,032
    10. VISSER, Naomi               (NED)   - 53,965
 ... 24. VOSS, Sarah                 (GER)   - 49,999
       ►  Detailed Results
.....  ►  REVIEW: Historical Balances
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* Sunday, July 28:
♦ Qualification, Individual All-around:
1. BILES, Simone     (USA) - 59,566;    2. ANDRADE, Rebeca (BRA) - 57,700;
3. LEE, Sunisa          (USA) - 56,132;    4. CHILES, Jordan        (USA) - 56,065;
5. . NEMOUR, Kaylia (ALG) - 55,966;.    6. ESPOSITO, Manila     (ITA) - 55,898;
7. D'AMATO, Alice          (ITA) - 55,432;     8. QIU, Qiyuan             (CHN) - 54,998;
9. BLACK, Elsabeth   (CAN) - 54,766;   10. KISHI, Rina               (JPN) - 54,699;
11. SASAIVA, Flavia     (BRA) - 54,199;   12. OU, Yushan             (CHN) - 53,965;.
13. IORIO, Elisa             (ITA) - 53,898;   14. PASS, Ruby               (AUS) - 53,866;
15. KEVRIC, Helen   (GER) - 53,865;    16. BARBOSU, Ana         (ROU) - 53,533;
     ► Detailed Results
 

♦ OLYMPIC APPARATUS FINAL, Women

♦♦ Saturday, August 03:  ♦ FINALS, DAY 1

   V A U L T           > Qualification;  ►Start list
* Last Olympic Champion       - Rebeca Andrade (BRA)
* Current World Champion:     - Rebeca Andrade (BRA)

 BILES, Simone            (USA    (6.4/5.6)=15,300
 ANDRADE. Rebeca    (BRA)  - (5.6/5.4)=14,966
 CAREY, Jade             (USA)  - (5.6/5.0)=14,466
        ► Detailed Results
* FIG comment--:  Simone BILES (USA) was once more unstoppable in the women’s Vault final as she landed her eye-popping Yurchenko double pike for the third time at these Games. This one was the best of the lot, and Biles’s 15.700 proved it. The 27-year-old added 14.900 for her Cheng, giving her an unbeatable 15.300 average. The title brings her Olympic medal count to 10 overall and brings her within two golds of Larisa Latynina (URS), whose nine titles are the most by any female athlete at the Olympic Games."I'm super excited, ecstatic for how my vaults were. I wanted to perform them well, and I think you saw that today”, Biles said. "I put in a lot of work to be able to perform that vault (the Yurchenko double pike) well. I'm excited I got to show that here during finals today."
Second was Tokyo 2020 Vault champion Rebeca Andrade (BRA), whose silver is her fifth Olympic medal. The two-time World champion got there by doing one of the better Chengs of her career, then adding an Amanar for 14.966.
Four years after balking on her first vault in the Tokyo final, Jade Carey (USA) showed a calm Cheng and a double-twisting Yurchenko for bronze, her third Olympic medal and the first non-gold. 

► History, Vault       

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♦♦ Sunday, August 04

   U N E V E N  B A R S    * Quali.: ► Uneven bars; > Start list
* last Olympic Champion:   Nina DERWAEL (BEL);
* current World Champion: QIU, Qiuyuan  (CHN)                                                

NEMOUR, Kaylia    (ALG)  - (7.2)=15,700
QIU, Qiyuan            (CHN)  - (7.2)=15,500
LEE, Sunisa           (USA)   - (6.4)=14,800
  ... 6. KEVRIC, Helen          (GER)  - (6.4)=14,566
          ► Detailed Results
* Short report --:Africa's first Olympic medal in gymnastics is a golden one, thanks to Kaylia NEMOUR (ALG)! The 17-year-old superstar performed the routine of her life on the second day of the apparatus final in the Bercy Arena and won the uneven bars title with the highest difficulty of D=7.2 and a +0.2 points better E-score as well as a personal best of 15.700 points, making her the pride of an entire continent.
The current world champion QIU, Qiyuan (15.500) was just as difficult and only narrowly defeated and bronze went to a completely surprised Sunisa LEE (USA), who relegated the Olympic champion from Tokyo, Nina Derwael, to fourth place.
Germany's 16-year-old champion Helen KEVRIC improved from 8th place in the preliminaries to 5th place and seemed to be nowhere near the end of her promising performance development ....! ...

► History: UNEVEN BARS

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*  Sunday, August 05:
... last Final Day of Artistic Gymnastcs:

 B A L A N C E  B E A M * Quali.: ► B e a m;   > Start list
* llast Olympic Champion:  GUAN, Chenchen  (CHN)
        * current World Champion: S     imone BILES  (USA)                                      

D'AMATO, Alice       (ITA)   - (5.8)=14,366
ZHOU, Yaqin           (CHN)  - (6.6)=14,100
ESPOSITO, Manila    (ITA)  - (5.8)=14,000
      4. ANDRADE, Rebecca (BRA)  - (5.7)=13,933
      5. BILES, Simone           (USA)  - (6.2)=13,100
          ► Detailed Results
* Kurz-Report -- :  Even before the men's "dive final" on high bar, there was also the fact that unfortunately only 50% of the women's finalists made it across the narrow action area unscathed. The favourite and best qualifier from China, ZHOU, Yaqin, had to be the first on the beam: after a gymnastic vault, catching her hands was judged as a "fall on the apparatus" - only 7.5 for execution, but with D=6.6, the highest difficulty concealed this lapse considerably: in the end it was still silver for China!
Then Sunisa LEE (USA) also suffered a nasty, heavy fall on and off the apparatus after a triple combination and fell back. Pre-competition bronze medallist Julia Soares suffered the same mishap after a half-twist straddle jump. Sabrina Maneca-Voinea from Romania first risked too much after a rondat somersault, stretched with a twist and then had to come off the apparatus a second time after a free cartwheel: So the audience had to wait until the sixth competitor to see the first Olympic-worthy beam routine, brilliantly celebrated by Italy's Alice D'AMATO from the Italian silver squad, who with the highest E-score (8.566) and a super-safe 2 1/2 screw somersault dismount rightly encouraged the judges to give her the highest score! ! Impressive - first well-deserved gold medal for D'Amato and for Italy!!!
It stayed that way, because after her even superstar Simone BILES had to leave the apparatus prematurely after a flickflack/spreadsault, received an additional -0.3 points deduction (time overrun), remained astonishingly without a medal, and finished fifth - even behind Rebeca Andrade, who with less difficulty (only 5.7) could not prevent Italy's second medal by Manila ESPOSITO (bronze)!

► History: BALANCE BEAM

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 F L O O R  E X E R C I S E S * Quali.: ► Floor exc;   > Start list
* last Olympic Champion:  Jade CAREY    (USA)
         * current World Champion  Simone BILES  (USA)                                      

ANDRADE, Rebeca  (BRA)  - (5.9)=14,166
BILES, Simone         (USA)  - (6.9)=14,133
CHILES, Jordan        (USA) - (5.9)=13,766
          ► Detailed Results
* Short report --: Even if this extraordinary athlete and personality Simone BILES is rightly admired and celebrated for her athletic and technical brilliance, Brazil's Rebeca ANDRADE is just as justifiably admired for her compositional and expressive elegance as she brilliantly performs her equally high technical repertoire of exercises as true "artistic" gymnastics. In the concluding floor final in Paris, she probably delivered the "DREAM EXERCISE" of these Olympic Games!
With one point less difficulty, an elegant creature conjured herself into the hearts and minds of the spectators on this 12x12 metre floor area, so that the points simply seemed irrelevant!
Of course, Simone then performed her "typical Biles" sensational elements on the mat, driven by Taylor Swift's song "Are you ready ..." with a double somersault + an incredible 3 length-axis twists (!!) or/and her Biles double somersault stretched + 1/2 twist, in perfect phase and technically brilliant ... but: a few times too often she went over the edge of the mat, even with both feet ... and: that added up!!!
In the end, everyone cheered the Olympic victory of Rebeca ANDRADE and a fair and enviously applauding Simone Biles, who ultimately won silver and was just as happy about the bronze medal of her team-mate Jordan CHILES, who was awarded bronze after an appeal and points correction, but relegated two equally strong Romanians to the thankless 4th and 5th places.
► History FLOOR EXERCISES

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♦  Qualification Apparatus Finals:  after last subdivision:
 ► Vaults (2; > Vault (1);  ► Uneven bars;  ► Balance beam;  ► Floor exercises
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GERMAN VERSION

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