Even without star and leader Simone Biles, the USA women’s gymnastics team found a silver lining in Tokyo.
With Biles withdrawing Tuesday after the first of four rotations to focus on what she described as her mental “well-being,” the rest of the American squad gutted out a second-place finish in the team competition behind the gold medal-winning Russian Olympic Committee and ahead of the team from Great Britain, which took home the bronze.
“I honestly, at that moment in time, I knew I had to put my feet into her shoes and show the world that no matter what happens that we all can take the place of somebody who’s also great,” said Jordan Chiles, who was pressed into duty to replace Biles on the uneven bars and balance beam. “It was mind-blowing.”
The U.S. team trailed the ROC by less than one point after the qualifying round, but those scores did not carry over for the finals.
The 24-year-old Biles departed Tuesday after a substandard vault rotation, but she returned to the sidelines to cheer on her teammates. She revealed they “were freaking out” when she informed them of her decision to drop out of the competition.
“They were crying, and I was like, ‘You guys need to relax, you’re gonna be fine without me,’ ” Biles said. “Go out there, kick some butt just like you’ve done in training, and just lay it out on the floor and see what happens.’
”This medal is all of them and the coaches and nothing to do with me,” Biles added. “I tried to go out there for the team, and they stepped up to the plate.”
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Chiles combined with 18-year-olds Sunisa Lee and Grace McCallum to help the Americans earn the silver after back-to-back gold medal wins in 2012 and 2016.
If the Americans had snared the gold, it would have marked the first unit to capture three straight team Olympic titles in the event since the Soviet Union pulled off the triple from 1952 to 1960.
“This medal is definitely for [Biles],” Chiles said. “If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t be here where we are right now. We wouldn’t be a silver medalist, because of who she is as a person.”
After Lee posted a career best 15.400 on the uneven bars, the Americans entered the floor exercise, the final event of the day, trailing the Russian Olympic Committee squad by eight-tenths of a point. But McCallum stepped out of bounds on her second tumbling pass and Chiles fell to the mat on one of her landings.
“It’s really hard losing a teammate, especially someone so amazing,” Lee said. “I’m just really proud of all three of us because we really did step up to the plate when we needed to, and I probably wouldn’t have it any other way.”