22 players from area selected to all-state team
TOKYO — Simone Biles’ bid to repeat as the all-around champion in women’s gymnastics at the Olympics is over before it truly started.
The American superstar withdrew from Thursday’s allaround competition to focus on her mental health. USA Gymnastics said in a statement released Wednesday that the 24-year-old has opted to not compete, a decision that came a day after Biles removed herself from the team final after one rotation because she felt she wasn’t mentally ready.
Jade Carey, who finished ninth in qualifying, was set to take Biles’ place in the allaround individual competition. Carey initially did not qualify because she was the thirdranked American behind Biles and Sunisa Lee, and International Gymnastics Federation rules limit countries to two athletes per event in the finals.
USA Gymnastics said Biles will be evaluated daily before deciding if she will participate in next week’s individual events. Biles qualified for the finals on all four apparatuses, something she didn’t even do during her five-medal haul in Rio de Janeiro at the 2016 Olympics.
Biles spent a portion of Wednesday evening watching fellow U.S. gymnasts Sam Mikulak and Brody Malone compete in the men’s all-around finals. Mikulak, a three-time Olympian, praised Biles’ decision.
“We’ve had some conversations,” Mikulak said, adding that it “seems like she’s doing what’s best for her. It’s awesome to see that she’s gotten to go against
the pressure of society and do what’s best for herself.”
Biles headed to Japan as possibly the face of the Tokyo Games after the retirement of swimmer Michael Phelps and sprinter Usain Bolt, two Americans who became international sensations during multiple Olympics. She topped qualifying Sunday despite piling up mandatory deductions on vault, floor and beam after shaky dismounts.
On Monday, she posted on social media that she felt the weight of the world on her shoulders, and it became too heavy after vaulting during team finals. She lost track of her move in mid-air and completed 1 1/2 twists instead of 2 1/2. She then consulted with U.S. team doctor Marcia Faustin before exiting the competition floor.
When she returned to the venue, she took off her bar grips, hugged teammates Sunisa Lee, Grace McCallum and Jordan Chiles and turned into the team’s head cheerleader as the Americans earned silver behind the winning Russian Olympic Committee team.
“Once I came out here (to compete), I was like, ‘No, mental is not there, so I just need to let the girls do it and focus on myself,’” Biles said after the medal ceremony.
The decision she made Wednesday opens the door wide open for the all-around event, for which Biles winning gold again was long considered a foregone conclusion. Rebeca Andrade of Brazil finished second to Biles during qualifying, followed by Lee and the ROC’s Angelina Melnikova and Vladislava Urazova. The four were separated by three-tenths of a point Sunday.
Carey is now in the final, capping a remarkable journey for the 21-year-old from Phoenix. She spent two years traveling the globe in an effort to pile up enough points on the World Cup circuit to earn an individual nominative spot, meaning she would be in the Olympics but technically not be part of the four-woman U.S. team.
Carey posted the second-best score on vault and the third-best result on floor during qualifying, earning trips to the event finals in the process. Now she finds herself competing for an all-around medal while replacing the athlete considered the greatest of all time in the sport.
Malone takes 10th
Daiki Hashimoto gave Japan its third straight gold metal in all-around men’s gymnastics competition Wednesday night, with the 19-year-old using a thrilling high-bar routine during the final rotation to slip past China’s Xiao Ruoteng and ROC’s Nikita Nagornyy.
Hashimoto’s total of 88.465 was four-tenths ahead of Ruoteng, who received a three-tenths deduction after forgetting to salute the judges during the final set.
For the United States, Malone finished 10th in his first Olympics and Mikulak was 12th after placing seventh five years ago in Rio. Malone, 21, graduated from Trion High School in northwest Georgia in 2018 and has since won two NCAA all-around titles at Stanford.