3rd August, 2021
By Abankula with agency reports
Simone Biles returned to the Tokyo Olympic gymnastic balanced beam event on Tuesday and picked bronze.
She was beaten by two Chinese girls, Guan Chenchen who picked the gold and Tang Xijing who picked the silver.
Biles came third with 14,000 points, as against 14,633 for Guan and 14,233 for Tang.
The event was the first for Simone, since she took herself out of several competitions to focus on her mental health.
It was also the last Tokyo Olympic gymnastic event.
Tuesday’s was watched by IOC President Thomas Bach.
The bronze was Simone’s seventh career Olympic medal.
She is now tied with Shannon Miller for the most medals by an American in gymnastics.
Olympic all-around champion Sunisa Lee of the United States finished fifth. The 18-year-old Lee won three medals in Tokyo, including silver in the team final and bronze on uneven bars.
Biles arrived in Tokyo as the face of the U.S. contingent in Japan and perhaps the Games themselves. Yet the brilliance she’s summoned so easily for so long during her run atop the sport came undone after qualifying on July 25.
She bailed out of her vault during the first rotation of the team finals on July 27, then stunningly removed herself from the competition as a matter of protection because she was having difficulty locating herself in the air.
She later described the phenomenon as “the twisties” and subsequently pulled out of the all-around, uneven bars, floor exercise and vault finals.
The decision amplified increased attention on the importance of mental health in sports in general and among Olympians specifically.
With reports by AP