Biles’ coach, Cecile Landi, said after the opening day of the women’s competition that Biles felt pain in her calf during the floor warmup, a recurrence of a problem she had experienced a few weeks earlier. Landi said Biles never considered withdrawing. She completed the competition and rose to the top of the all-around standings. Biles had one of her best performances, finishing nearly two points ahead of her closest challenger, Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, and leading the U.S. team to an overall score more than five points ahead of second-place finisher Italy.
The scores do not carry over into the team finals, but given their difficult routines and Biles’ dominance, there is room for error for the U.S. women.
Chellsie Memmel, the technical director of the U.S. High Performance staff, said before the competition began that Biles would be given the opportunity to compete on fewer apparatuses in the team final if that would ease the pressure on her. Landi indicated that the beam, Biles’ weakest event, would be the event she skipped.
But Biles will be in all four lineups, which also means she has the chance to debut a new element on the beam that will be named after her if she pulls it off. Biles didn’t advance to the beam final, so the team competition and the all-around final are her only remaining chances to showcase that skill — a front circling element with a 1½ pirouette — at these Games.
Jade Carey, who said she had been feeling ill recently, is the only athlete in the vault lineup for the team competition. She is the reigning Olympic gold medalist on floor but struggled in the qualifying round, where she had to make her final tumbling pass. Jordan Chiles is in the lineup on every apparatus. Chiles narrowly missed a chance to compete in the all-around final; she placed fourth overall, but with higher scores from Biles and Sunisa Lee meant she was withdrawn. Countries are limited to two athletes in each final.
In the team finals, Lee will compete on the bars, beam and floor. Hezly Rivera, 16, will not compete at all. Rivera was unsteady on the beam in the qualifying round, which was the event she had the best chance of competing on. It appears the U.S. staff relied heavily on the results from the qualifying round in determining the lineups.