Simone Biles hurts her leg in Paris Olympic gymnastics qualifying : NPR

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PARIS — On her first day of competitors on the 2024 Olympic Video games, the gymnast Simone Biles appeared to harm her leg throughout a warm-up routine — an damage that triggered considerations however in the end didn’t preserve her from finishing her routines and ending in first place.

After the competitors, Biles’s coach, Cecile Landi, downplayed the importance of the damage. “She felt a little bit one thing in her calf,” Landi mentioned.

Regardless of the damage, Biles posted excessive scores, together with a competition-high 15.8 on the vault. Joined by robust performances from her teammates, it was sufficient to safe a spot for the U.S. ladies’s gymnastics staff within the staff all-around remaining on Tuesday, by which the U.S. is a favourite to win gold. The person all-around remaining is ready for Thursday.

There are at the moment no considerations “in the meanwhile” about Biles’s means to compete in these occasions, Landi mentioned.

Biles appeared to harm her leg throughout a warm-up for the ground train, her second equipment of the evening. After touchdown a cross, Biles walked gingerly off the mat the place she consulted together with her coaches then disappeared briefly from the ground. Afterward, she returned to have her ankle and decrease calf wrapped with thick athletic tape.

Regardless of the damage, Biles went on to finish her remaining routines, scoring a excessive of 15.8 on the vault. “By no means in her thoughts” was there a query of whether or not she would proceed, Landi mentioned.

Simone Biles carried out the ground train on Sunday together with her ankle and calf taped.

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Expectations for Biles and the remainder of the U.S. ladies’s gymnastics staff are sky-high at this Olympic Video games in Paris.

Biles, 27, has been performing on the highest degree of her profession since she returned to competitors final yr after a two-year hiatus. She is taken into account the favourite to win at the least three particular person gold medals, together with a staff all-around gold for the U.S.

An damage might set these aspirations again. “At the start, I simply wish to be certain that she’s bodily okay, after which we’re simply going to go from there,” mentioned ladies’s staff technical lead Chellsie Memmel. “What she was capable of do, with wanting like she had some soreness or one thing in her decrease leg, is outstanding.”

Biles had briefly skilled a problem together with her calf earlier this month, Landi revealed. “After that, it stopped. Then a little bit bit once more in the present day,” Landi mentioned. “Just a bit ache in her calf.”

The U.S. ladies’s staff completed their spherical of {qualifications} with the highest spot on the staff rankings. Gymnasts Jordan Chiles and Sunisa Lee, the defending gold medalist within the particular person all-around, each completed about 3.5 factors behind Biles.

“Their aim, it’s extremely apparent, is to return dwelling with a gold medal,” Memmel mentioned.

In three of Sunday’s rounds, Biles carried out final. Consequently, as her opponents rested, she drew the complete consideration of a crowd of about 15,000, a lot of whom — together with celebrities Snoop Dogg, Tom Cruise and Anna Wintour — had come largely to see her.