Simone Biles has been praised by her fans after a controversial day at the 2024 Paris Olympics where she narrowly missed out on another gold medal.
Monday (5 August) saw Biles go for gold again in two disciplines, the balance beam and floor routines.
The beam ended quickly and controversially for Biles, who fell from the apparatus in a shock twist to the final. She followed in the tumbling footsteps of her USA teammate Sunisa Lee, who also fell off the beam during her stunning routine.
Biles, 27, appeared to be fuming after the tumble which took her out of contention for any medal, eventually coming in fifth place. It was the first time in the Paris Games she didn't finish on the podium and with a medal.
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Biles didn't directly blame the crowd for the result straight away but commentary for the BBC alluded that it was 'something in the arena' that put her off.
Agitated, she could be heard saying: “Why are they all shushing? As soon as I’m going they’re like shushing so much.”
After the final, Biles told media: "The beam final is always the most stressful. Usually we have music or background noise, whatever that may be, and honestly we do better in environments when there’s noise going on because it feels the most like practice.
"Today you could hear the ringtones going off, the photo clickers, whatever that was and you’re trying to stay in your zone and then the people start cheering and the shushing gets louder so they should be shushed because they’re louder.
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“I don’t know, it was really weird and awkward and we’d asked if we’ve could have some music or some background noise, so I’m not really sure what happened there. It’s not our favourite, none of us liked it. It was an odd beam final.”
In the floor final, Biles and USA teammate Jordan Chiles showed the ultimate act of sportsmanship after both of them were pipped to gold by Brazil's Rebeca Andrade, with the pair bowing as Andrade took to the gold medal spot on the medal podium. Biles won silver and Chiles secured bronze.
Posting on Instagram after the floor final, which was Biles' final event in the Paris Games, the American athlete humbly simply wrote: "More than my wildest dreams."
One fan wrote: "Thank you for your kindness towards our Rebeca [Andrade], Brazil loves you, and seeing an entire podium of black women is a great victory."
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A second said: "Queen. The sportsmanship shown towards Rebeca was more moving than a gold medal in my opinion."
Actor Halle Berry posted: "I know you are so proud of yourself! You inspire us all to strive for excellence! Forever the GOAT."
Even the official Instagram account got involved, commenting: "More than a queen, an EMPRESS."
It could be the very final time we see Biles at the Olympics, with her 31 next time around. If that is the case, we've been blessed with one of the greatest, and nicest, athletes to ever grace the Games.
Topics: Instagram, Olympics, Simone Biles, Social Media, Sport, US News
Tom Earnshaw