U.S. gymnast Jade Carey has won the gold medal in the floor exercise final at the Tokyo Olympics. Her performance Monday comes a day after she tripped while competing in the women's vault final and left Ariake Gymnastics Center in tears.
Her teammate, gymnastic superstar Simone Biles is planning to compete in the balance beam final Tuesday at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Biles withdrew from the team all- around competition last Tuesday, citing mental health issues.
USA Gymnastics announced the star athlete’s return to the games in a statement: “We are so excited to confirm that you will see two U.S. athletes in the balance beam final tomorrow - Suni Lee AND Simone Biles!! Can’t wait to watch you both!"
Biles, talking about her decision to withdraw, said on social media that she was also suffering with “the twisties,” a condition in which gymnasts have trouble maneuvering in the air. The condition can be dangerous for the athletes. Biles, who is 24 years old, was seen practicing at a local Tokyo gym that had soft landing materials.
Biles did not shy away from attending the competitions of her USA teammates after her withdrawal from the team and individual all-around competitions, as well as the vault, uneven bars, and floor exercises. She was in the arena to applaud Sunisa Lee, her 18-year-old teammate, when the teenager won the all-around gymnastic championship, a category Biles was expected to win. Biles also saw Mykayla Skinner win silver in women’s vault final.
Biles is the current world champion on the balance beam.
In other events, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico won the gold for the women’s 100-meter hurdles. Camacho-Quinn was born in the U.S. and attended college in Kentucky. She decided, however, to compete under Puerto Rico’s flag since her mother is Puerto Rican.
Two men tied to win the men’s high jump, after each failed three times to conquer the Olympic-record height of 2.39 meters (7 feet, 10 inches). An official told Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy and Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar that they could share the gold medal and that is what the two athletes decided to do.
In another dramatic turn of events at the Tokyo Games, one of the women in a 1,500-meter heat, fell over a runner who had fallen.
Sifan Hassan, the Ethiopian-born Dutch runner tried unsuccessfully to jump over Kenya’s Edinah Jebitok who had fallen in a mishap. But Hassan never took her eyes off the prize, recovering quickly. She got up and ran past one runner after another to win the heat in 4 minutes, 5.17 seconds to move onto the semi-finals.
Some information in this report comes from the Associated Press and Reuters.
