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Simone Biles floor exercise seals gold for U.S. gymnastics in team final: Social reactions

craig meyer, usa today network
·3-min read

For the United States women’s gymnastics team, the exclamation point for its gold medal in the women’s team final competition on Tuesday came from an all-too-fitting source.

Simone Biles earned the eighth Olympic medal of her legendary gymnastics career with a superb floor routine to secure the gold medal for an American team that also featured Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera.

Her routine earned a score of 14.666, prompting a standing ovation from a crowd at the 2024 Paris Olympics, including celebrities such as Spike Lee, Serena Williams, Natalie Portman and Nicole Kidman.

REQUIRED READING: Simone Biles, U.S. women's gymnastics dominate team finals to win gold: Social media reacts

Biles’ eighth medal, which have been accrued across three Olympics, broke what had been a tie with Shannon Miller for the most Olympic medals ever won by an American gymnast.

For Team USA, the victory in the team competition was its third in the past four Olympics. Before that run, the Americans had just one women’s team gold medal in its history, which came at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. While the accomplishment belonged to the five-member team, Biles’ role in earning it was impossible to overlook, particularly for those celebrating the achievement on social media.

Here’s a sampling of the reaction to Biles’ floor routine and Team USA picking up yet another gold medal in the women’s gymnastics team competition at the Olympics:

Simone Biles’ gold medal-clinching floor routine: Social media reacts

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Simone Biles floor exercise seals U.S. gold in team final: Social reactions