Simone Biles was left fuming with Olympics fans for ‘shushing’ in the middle of her balance beam routine on Monday after a rare mistake saw her miss out on a medal.
Before she recovered from a nasty slip in her warmup to win silver in the floor final, Biles failed to make it onto the podium for the first time at this summer’s Paris Games after she briefly lost her footing and was forced to step off the beam.
As a result, the American gymnastics legend did not add to her tally of three gold medals after receiving a disappointing score of 13.100.
Biles’ USA teammate Suni Lee, who suffered a more disastrous fall when she came flying off the beam at the end of her routine, revealed that both of them were thrown off by the ‘tense’ atmosphere inside Bercy Arena.
As they cheered their teammates on, Lee claims athletes were subjected to ‘shushing’ noises on the sidelines with the crowd urging them to be quiet.
“I don’t think we’ve ever seen Simone Biles fall off the beam at a major championship.” 😲#Olympics #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/3A6OHjGknt
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 5, 2024
‘You could feel the tension in the room. I mean, the crowd shushing us for cheering,’ the 21-year-old said after getting the same score of 13.100.
‘We did not like that, just because it’s just so silent in there. I love hearing my teammates cheer for me.’
Lee then recalled Biles fuming after her routine came to an end. ‘Me and Simone were like, “Why are they shushing?” Like, we’re just trying to cheer.
‘But yeah, [Biles] came off and she was like, “I don’t know why they were shushing in the middle of my routine.”‘
When television cameras cut to her after the routine, Biles appeared to be asking her coach why fans were shushing in the venue.
Lee went on to describe the atmosphere inside Bercy Arena as being eerily quiet, which she believes may have contributed to their errors on the day.
‘I feel like it was the pressure, the atmosphere,’ she continued. ‘It was really silent when you get up there.
‘I could literally hear myself breathing.’
Biles still had another chance to win her fourth medal of this summer’s Olympics later in the day, which she did after taking silver in the women’s floor final.
The 27-year-old, who has become USA’s most decorated gymnast of all time in Paris by taking her overall Olympics medal tally to 10, has already won team, all-around and vault titles over the past week.
However, the slight stumble on the beam meant she missed out on the opportunity to add to the bronzes she won in this event at the 2016 and 2020 Games.
Wearing a blue-and-white leotard featuring over 5,000 crystals, Biles was more than halfway through her set when she couldn’t quite keep her balance.
She hopped off the beam and onto the mat while thousands inside a packed Bercy Arena let out an audible gasp.
There was an extended wait for her score to post. At one point, Biles rolled her eyes in seeming annoyance knowing she wasn’t going to finish on the medal stand.
Biles finished in a tie for fifth with Lee, whose hopes for a gold on beam she’s long coveted ended in the middle of her routine when she fell during the end of her acro series, just like the former did a few minutes later.
As she warmed up for the floor final, Biles appeared to injure her calf muscle after slipping on the mat.
She then went on to post a score of 14.133 on the floor, which was not enough for the gold medal after Brazil’s Rebecca Andrade scored 14.166 to hold onto first place.
Instead Biles was forced to settle for silver in her final event at this summer’s Games, meaning she leaves Paris with four medals in the bag.
There were fears for the 10-time medalist before she started her performance though after she was left grimacing as she finished her practice routine.
She then went to get medical attention and came back wearing a strapping on her left leg. Biles also appeared to be limping as she tried to walk off the injury.
Teammate Jordan Chiles was left in tears after taking the bronze in dramatic scenes, with the USA star bumped up from fifth to third with a score of 13.766 after appealing her initial score of 13.666.
It goes down as Chiles’ first individual medal at the Games, after she previously won gold and silver in the team final at both the Paris and Tokyo Olympics.
