A rough time on the balance beam for two of Team USA’s women gymnastic stars.
Both Suni Lee and Simone Biles fell off the beam Monday in their bid to get yet another medal in what’s been a wonderful comeback for the two of them.
Both slipped off and ended up with identical scores- 13.1. That fell well short of what they needed to get on the medal stand.
The Houston Chronicle reports that Biles and Lee finished fifth and sixth behind gold medal winner Alice D’Amato of Italy. China’s Yuqin Zhou won silver and Italy’s Manila Esposito won bronze.
It was three years ago in Tokyo when Biles dropped out of the competition to deal with both mental health issues and the twisties, a dangerous condition that makes it difficult to judge where they are when up in the air.
This time in Paris, Biles led Team USA to a team gold medal and won individual golds in the all-around and vault. This is her third Olympics and could be her last.
Lee also won a team gold and a bronze in the uneven bars. Her appearance at this year’s Olympics became in doubt when doctors diagnosed her with two rare kidney ailments that threatened her gymnastics future.
Lee got off to a great start on the beam and everything went according to plan until she took a hard fall towards the end of her routine. She managed to get back on her feet and resume the program, but any chance of a medal was lost.
Lee declared “I’m good” as her coach Jess Graba, Biles and Bile’s coach Cecile Landi all tried to console her.
“Honestly just gonna look back and think about how I was able to persevere everything,” she told US Magazine. “I’m so sad about my beam routine, but it’s OK because … I gave it my all.”
Interestingly, none of the six gymnasts who competed in the finals had a clean program. All of them fell.
Biles will get one more shot at another Olympic medal when she competes in the floor exercise later tonight.
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