Simone Biles out of all-around due to injury

Simone Biles, 24, was seen being attended to by medical personnel after performing her vault on the horse, and no longer came out for the uneven bars
“Simone Biles has withdrawn from the final team competition due to a health issue. She will be evaluated daily to determine if she is medically cleared for future competitions.”

With just two lines, the U.S. Gymnastics Federation tried to stop the wave of conjecture that followed the withdrawal of the sport’s biggest star from the team final at the Tokyo Olympics.

Gymnast Simone Biles was unable to finish her participation for the United States in the women’s all-around team event, being replaced for the uneven bars by alternate Jordan Chiles.

Biles was seen being attended to by U.S. delegation medical personnel.

The statement confirms that there is a problem and leaves in doubt Biles’ participation in the rest of her pending finals: all-around, vault, floor and beam.

The 24-year-old gymnast did compete in the vault event, earning a score of 13.766 before leaving to be treated for an apparent injury. Her score was the worst among the North American team members.

With no apparent injuries, but unsure since she began competing last Sunday, Biles came out today looking serious in the Ariake gym, did her jumping exercise, which she did not nail, and exchanged puzzled looks with her coaches.

After seeing the score of 13.766 on the scoreboard, the worst among the members of her national team, the reigning Olympic champion left the stage with a team doctor. She returned a few minutes later, dressed in a tracksuit and wearing a mask.

Her withdrawal from the final became official in a matter of minutes, the time it took for Jordan Chiles, who was to be an alternate on the uneven bars, to start warming up.

“It’s not an injury-related issue,” a coach reported, according to the NBC television broadcast. “It’s a mental issue Simone is suffering from. Physically, she’s fine,” the trainer added, according to a network report. “It’s just over for the night.”

The U.S. lost the gold medal, or won it, to Russia, which was already ahead two days earlier in the qualifying round.

On that day, in her Tokyo Games debut, Biles did not wear her usual smile. She moved restlessly around the pavilion between exercises and, within her exceptional level, did not get the expected marks. In fact, she was first on vault but second on floor (an apparatus on which she has not lost a competition since 2013) and sixth on beam.

Less than a month ago, at the selection trials to make the U.S. team, Biles won on the first day of competition but lost in the second to teammate Sunisa Lee. She reacted with tears and asked about that defeat and her pain, she attributed both to the pressure of the imminence of another Olympic Games.

The Texas gymnast won four gold medals and one bronze medal in Rio, which she could at least match in Tokyo, according to the marks obtained in recent seasons. Except for the sabbatical year she took after the previous Games, she has won all but two of the competitions in which she has participated.

During that period she also became a social reference by revealing the abuse she was subjected to by the doctor Larry Nassar, now in prison. She has been a constant scourge for the federation and the U.S. Olympic Committee, which she accuses of turning a deaf ear to the complaints made over the years.

After finishing today’s final, she chatted animatedly with the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the German Thomas Bach, who came down to the track to talk to her and inquire about her condition. And after collecting her silver medal, she spent more than half an hour taking pictures with her teammates in an already empty Ariake.

The same gymnast to whom before the Games the social network twitter dedicated an emoji as GOAT (the best of all time) has a problem today and only she keeps the secret of what is happening to her. Her health, physical or mental, played a dirty trick on her when she was about to revalidate the first of her Olympic golds. It is a matter of hours to know if her problem is temporary or serious enough for her to miss the rest of the finals.

The American became the first athlete to qualify for all six possible finals in women’s artistic gymnastics at these Games: team all-around, individual all-around, and the final of each of the four apparatuses.