TOKYO — Simone Biles and the U.S. women looked far from the golden juggernaut they’ve been advertised to be.
The Americans were second to Russia in qualifying Sunday, the first time since the 2010 world championships that they’ve failed to finish first in either qualifying or team finals at worlds or the Olympics. Scoring starts over in Tuesday’s team finals, but another performance like this and the women will be looking at one of the most epic upsets in Olympic history.
The U.S. women came to Tokyo so heavily favored to win their third consecutive Olympic gold the joke was that they’d have to miss the bus not to win. But whether it was buying into their own hype or just an off day the likes of which hasn’t been seen in more than a decade, the Americans had none of the efficient excellence that has become their trademark.
It started with the first routine, when Grace McCallum bounced out of bounds on her first tumbling pass. But everyone had a hand in this debacle. Suni Lee’s floor routine wasn’t crisp, and she landed her vault low. Jordan Chiles, who hadn’t made a major mistake in her previous four meets this year, dragged her feet on the mat as she transitioned from the high bar to low, and fell off balance beam.
Even Biles wasn’t immune. She bounced off the carpet on floor exercise, her feet nearly slipping out from beneath her, and also landed out of bounds on her first vault, both errors costing her three-tenths in deductions. She also overcooked her dismount on balance beam and stumbled three steps back.
Biles still leads the all-around standings and will make event finals in vault, floor and beam, keeping her chances of winning a record five golds alive. But the reality of the day seemed to sink in as Biles waited for her beam score, a grim look on her face.
“We hope that we're also going to struggle and fight. We have to,” Russian Angelina Melnikova said about the prospects of upsetting the Americans. “That's the expectation for us."
USA Gymnastics had said even before the meet ended that the women would not be stopping in the mixed zone, a move out of the norm for even the biggest-named U.S. athletes at an Olympics. Even after getting embarrassed by Sweden in their Olympic opener Wednesday night, members of the U.S. women’s soccer team stopped to talk.
The only American to deliver on every event was Jade Carey, but she was competing as an individual so her scores didn’t count toward the team qualifying. Carey missed out on the all-around final because of the rule that limits countries to two gymnasts per event final, but she qualified for vault and floor.
Despite the overall poor performance, the Americans had a few bright spots. Lee did a spectacular uneven bars routine, floating effortlessly from one bar to the other and making the most intricate of combinations look like child’s play. This was the less-crazy-difficult of her crazy difficult routines, but she scored a 15.2, which is going to be tough for anyone else in qualifying to top.
That helped give Lee a total of 57.166, second only to Biles in the all-around standings.
Biles stayed in bounds on her first tumbling pass, the triple-twisting, double somersault that had been giving her troubles at the national championships and Olympic trials.
And as the women waited to leave the floor, they wore sober looks, as if understanding that while they are the best team in the world, even the best team can be humbled.
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