Simone Biles made history at the ongoing Olympic Games in Paris by officially cemented her place as the American Olympian with the most gymnastics medals in history with five gold medals.
History was made when Biles claimed the gold medal in the women’s Artistic Gymnastics Team event alongside teammates Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera.
Biles put up an impressive performance, delivering a crowd pleasing display that sealed gold, playing it safe in her first rotation on vault with the ‘easier’ of her routines, contrary to the harder one she tried in the qualification process.
The 27-year-old was dealing with a calf injury but still managed to help her team post a total of 171.296 to complete a comfortable victory over Italy who finished with a total score of 165.494.
“They called it the redemption tour, and that’s what it is. They wanted the gold they couldn’t get in Tokyo,” USA coach Cecile Lendi said after the victory. Biles on her part posted on Instagram with the caption, “lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions.”
Her caption was a subtle clapback at former teammate MyKayla Skinner who had criticised Biles’ current teammates for not being aggresive enough.
Biles will represent the United States again on Thursday in the all-round final followed by the vault final on Saturday, and then the floor and beam finals on Monday.