Simone Biles' gymnastics withdrawal leaves Olympic fans in shock
American gymnastics superstar Simone Biles has pulled out of the all-round women's gymnastics competition under mysterious circumstances.
Biles, 23, consulted her team after an uncharacteristically awkward first attempt on the vault on Tuesday evening, denting the USA's chance of a third straight gold medal in the event.
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She bailed on her expected, more difficult vault, performing the less difficult Yurchenko 1.5 before landing awkwardly by her high standards.
She looked to be in tears as she left the mat and then soon walked out of the arena floor with a trainer from USA Gymnastics, and she did not appear to suffer any obvious physical injury in her attempt.
Biles returned soon after and had her wrists wrapped as if she would compete in the next discipline, the uneven bars. However, she soon unwrapped them and put on her warm-up outfit.
USA Gymnastics announced soon after she was done for the rest of the night.
There is no immediate word on the extent of Biles' potential injury or whether she can compete Thursday for the all-around title or in any of the four individual finals she qualified for.
Simone Biles back in warmup gear, cheering on her teammates after she told them she pulled out of the team competition final.
“It is not injury related” and apparently her coach said “it’s a mental issue that Simone is having,” per NBC commentators just now. #TokyoOlympics pic.twitter.com/WdBgVBnF5m— Monica Alba (@albamonica) July 27, 2021
#BREAKING According to NBC, Simone Biles' coach said, "physically she's fine, but she's done for tonight." NBC also shared this Instagram post from Simone last night. Supporting athletes goes way beyond the field of competition. Simone is out there supporting Team USA right now. pic.twitter.com/f47C6Hv1TX
— Brendan Keefe (@BrendanKeefe) July 27, 2021
Now this from USA Gymnastics: “Simone Biles has withdrawn from the team final competition due to a medical issue. She will be assessed daily to determine medical clearance for future competitions.” #TeamUSA
— Justin Hinton (@justinhintontv) July 27, 2021
Biles won four golds and one bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Games. She is considered the greatest gymnast of all time and expected Tokyo to be a crowning send off.
After being taken out of competition, Biles remained on the floor and continued to loudly cheer on and encourage her teammates.
Simone Biles makes uncharacteristic errors in gymnastics qualifying
Biles has appeared somewhat out of sorts in Tokyo after a rare slip in her first floor routine at the Olympics, despite recovering to shock everyone with a remarkable score.
The four-time gold medalist took to the floor routine in Tokyo and was setting the arena alight.
But in a very rare moment, Biles slipped out of bounds after two tumbling passes.
The moment had fans around the world stunned, which shows the lofty standards the remarkable American has set.
However, Biles showed why she is the greatest after finishing her routine with aplomb and was rewarded with the second highest scores from the judges.
But the drama wasn't over.
Only moments later, Biles stepped off the mat after a below-par vault.
Biles appeared to miss her spring when launching and lost her direction in the air.
The American showed a wry smile after the slip and shared a laugh with her coach.
However, once again, Biles produced a surreal effort in her second attempt.
Fans couldn't get over the remarkable effort from Biles after the rare mistakes.
Biles is widely regarded as the the greatest gymnast ever having collected a remarkable four Olympic gold medals and 19 World Championship gold medals at the age of 24.
The 4'8 American superstar is preparing for one final run in Tokyo, which Biles penned in as her last Games before she retires from the rigorous sport.
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