Biles and Team USA mix glamour and grit to surge to the lead at Olympic gymnastics qualifying

PARIS (AP) — Simone Biles and the rest of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team walked onto the floor at Bercy Arena on Sunday in leotards adorned with thousands of crystals, the kind designed to attract as much attention as possible.

Don’t mistake all that glamour — both on the floor and in the stands, where Tom Cruise and Ariana Grande were among those who took in the spectacle — for a lack of grit.

The oldest team the Americans have ever brought to the Games has endured plenty through the years, from health scares to losses in their personal life. Those experiences have prepared them for whatever may come, perhaps Biles most of all.

So when the most decorated gymnast of all time felt a tweak during her floor exercise warm-up on Sunday, she didn’t panic. Neither did her teammates.

Biles briefly retreated to the back so coach Laurent Landi could essentially mummify the bottom of her left leg, then came back out and helped fuel a team that looks every bit as good as advertised.

With Biles — achy calf and all — putting up the highest score on vault and floor exercise and reigning Olympic champion Sunisa Lee looking perhaps as good as ever on uneven bars, the U.S. posted a total of 172.296, doing little to dampen the expectation that Tuesday night’s team final will be more of a coronation for a team that has called this trip to the Games part of their “Redemption Era.”

“They’re happy and relieved,” U.S. coach Cecile Landi said. “Day one, now moving on to team finals, all-around finals, a couple event finals hopefully.”

Italy was second in qualifying, finishing more than five points behind the Americans at 166.681, a massive gap in a sport where events are typically decided by mere tenths, if not less. China finished third at 166.628, followed by Brazil at 166.429.

Japan, Canada and Britain also advanced to the team final. So did Romania, a former superpower in the sport that had missed each of the last two Games after the national team program fell into disarray following the 2012 Olympics.

Biles, despite walking with a noticeable limp, paced the all-around at 59.566, with Brazilian star Rebeca Andrade, the best gymnast not named Biles over the last three years, in second at 57.700. Lee was third at 56.132.

The top 24 finishers in the all-around and the top eight in each event advance to the finals later in the Games.

The U.S.'s score made it look like business as usual. It wasn’t for Biles, who Landi said tweaked a calf issue that initially cropped up a couple of weeks ago. Biles thought she had it under control until she warmed up on floor exercise.

After a few anxious moments, there Biles was, putting together another floor routine packed with the kind of difficulty no other gymnast in the world can approach.

It was the same on vault, where she slightly overcooked her signature Yurchenko double pike, proof the calf was good enough for her to generate the kind of speed necessary to perform perhaps the single most breathtaking skill being done in the sport.

“What she was able to do, with looking like she had some soreness or something in her lower leg, is remarkable,” said Chellsie Memmel, the co-lead of the U.S. women’s program.

Yet it wasn’t just Biles — who is expected to be available for the rest of the meet and felt good enough later Sunday to post a video of her lip-syncing a rap song to her social media channels — who helped the U.S. find itself more than five points ahead of Italy.

Lee, who has spent a good portion of the last 18 months battling multiple kidney issues that saw her weight fluctuate wildly and limited her training, looked as sharp as she did in Tokyo three years ago on bars — her signature event — to finish second behind Biles in the all-around.

Jordan Chiles, a silver medalist in 2021, erased the memory of a sometimes difficult performance in Japan by finishing fourth in the all-around behind her teammates and Andrade. The 23-year-old will miss the all-around final, however, due to rules that limit countries to two athletes per competition. Chiles did earn a spot in the floor exercise final and has made no secret that she badly wants the team gold that Russia claimed in Tokyo.

Jade Carey, the 2020 Olympic floor exercise champion, likely locked up a spot in the vault finals while battling an illness that perhaps contributed to multiple mistakes on floor that cost her a chance to defend her gold medal.

Hezly Rivera, at 16 the youngest member of Team USA by a considerable margin, had some visible nerves while on beam and uneven bars in her first trip to the Games.

Teams enter four athletes on each event during qualifying, with each team dropping its lowest score. That will change during the three-up, three-count final.

With the Russians out due to the war in Ukraine, the stiffest competition figures will come from Italy, China and Brazil.

The Chinese were led by 17-year-old Qui Qiyuan, who put up a dazzling 15.066 on uneven bars that likely makes her the closest challenger to Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour, whose 15.600 was the highest of the day on any event outside of Biles’ 15.8 on vault.

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games