Olympic gymnastics highlights: Simone Biles wins vault gold as USA earns three medals

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Olympic gymnastics highlights: Simone Biles wins vault gold as USA earns three medals

Nancy Armour and Tom Schad, USA TODAY · USA TODAY Sports

Sun, Aug 4, 2024 ·

11 min read

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PARIS — Simone Biles has captured another gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics , this one in the women's vault final on Saturday. It's her third gold medal of these Games, after leading the U.S. to gold in the team final and winning gold in the all-around final .

"Not many people in the world can do it to this level, so once we're out here, the floor is our stage. It just feels so freeing for us. We're in our element, we're having fun and doing what we love to do," Biles said. "I think that's why I love it so much."

Brazil's Rebeca Andrade won silver, her second silver and third medal overall of these Games. Biles' teammate Jade Carey won bronze , her second medal here and third of her career.

"This medal means everything to me," Carey said. "It was one of my biggest motivators to get back here."

For her career, it's Biles' seventh gold and 10th medal overall, extending her record of most Olympic medals by an American gymnast. Biles also won gold on vault at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

In the last individual final event of the day, USA's Stephen Nedoroscik took home bronze in the pommel horse final. "It's just been unbelievable," he said after. "I've just consistently been on top of the world for like a week now."

USA TODAY Sports brought you all the live results, scores and highlights. Check it out.

Simone Biles leaves the door open to compete at 2028 Olympics in LA

Minutes after winning gold on vault – that's her third of the Paris Olympics , for those counting, and seventh overall – Simone Biles left the door open to competing at the Los Angeles Games in 2028. Or, rather, she didn't close it.

"Never say never. The next Olympics is at home, so you just never know," she said Saturday night, before starting to laugh. "But I am getting really old."

Simone Biles vault score

Add another gold medal to Simone Biles' collection. Biles won her second Olympic title on vault Saturday, adding to the gold she won in 2016. It's also her 10th Olympic medal and seventh gold. At these Paris Games alone, Biles has already won three medals, all of them gold. And she still has the balance beam and floor exercise finals Monday.

The gold was a given after Biles did her signature Yurchenko double pike , which is so difficult few men are even doing it. She followed with one of the best Chengs she's ever done, getting so much hang time the U.S. men's basketball team that came to watch her in the all-around final would be impressed.

Those vaults gave her a combined score of 15.3, more than 0.300 ahead of Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, who won gold on vault in both Tokyo and at last year's world championships.

Pommel horse guy Stephen Nedoroscik wins bronze

Stephen Nedoroscik became just the fourth American man since World War II to win an Olympic medal on pommel horse Saturday, barely holding on to win bronze. Less than a week after becoming an internet phenomenon with his medal-clinching performance in the team final, Nedoroscik turned in a largely clean routine in the apparatus final to record a score of 15.300 — one tenth of a point better than Max Whitlock of Great Britain, the two-time defending Olympic champion in this event.

"It's just been unbelievable," he said after winning bronze. "I've just consistently been on top of the world for like a week now."

While Nedoroscik's difficulty score of 6.400 wasn't quite as high as the men who took gold and silver -- Rhys McClenaghan of Ireland and Nariman Kurbanov of Kazakhstan — his execution score of 8.900 was good enough to secure the bronze.

Jade Carey vault score

Jade Carey won her second Olympic medal of the Paris Games, taking bronze in vault Saturday afternoon. Carey, 24, finished a solid third behind Biles and Andrade. She hit a Cheng, which is the second-hardest vault being performed today, with her first vault for a score of 14.733. Then she landed an incredibly clean double-twisting Yurchenko with her second attempt to jump ahead of An Chan-ok of North Korea, who took fourth.

This is the only apparatus final for which Carey qualified, though she was also part of the U.S. team that won gold Tuesday. Carey said in qualifying that she had been dealing with an illness and was struggling to keep food down, though her mom said on NBC a few days later that the Oregon State product was feeling better. Saturday's bronze gives Carey the third Olympic medal of her career; she also won gold at the 2021 Tokyo Games.

Rebeca Andrade vault score

Brazil's Rebeca Andrade scored a combined 14.966 on vault, putting up a 15.100 on her first and 14.833 on her second, which earned her silver.

Women's vault final scores

Each gymnast performs two vaults and their final score is an average of the two. Here are the scores as they come in. Simone Biles went fourth, Jade Carey went go last.

Simone Biles, USA:15.300 (15.700 on first, 14.900 on second)
Rebeca Andrade, Brazil:14.966 (15.100 on first, 14.833 on second)
Jade Carey, USA:14.466 (14.733 on first, 14.200 on second)
An Chang Ok, Democratic People's Republic of Korea:14.216 (14.066 on first, 14.366 on second)
Valentina Georgieva, Bulgaria:13.983 (14.100 on first, 13.866 on second)
Elsabeth Black, Canada:13.933 (14.100 on first, 12.633 on second)
Yeo Seojeong, Republic of Korea:13.416 (14.166 on first 12.666)
Shallon Olsen, Canada:13.366 (14.100 on first, 12.633 on second)

Aug 3, 2024; Paris, France; Simone Biles of the United States competes on the vault on the first day of gymnastics event finals during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Bercy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Men's pommel horse final scores: Ireland's Rhys McClenaghan wins gold

Here is are scores for the men's pommel horse final: Ireland's Rhys McClenaghan (15.33), Kazakhstan's Nariman Kurbanov (15.433), USA's Stephen Nedoroscik (15.300), Great Britain's Max Whitlock (15.200), Ukraine's Oleg Verniaiev (14.966), Japan's Takaaki Sugino (14.933), Republic of Korea's Hur Woong (14.300), Netherlands' Loran de Munck (13.733).

Men's floor final scores: Philippines' Carlos Edriel Yulowins gold

Carlos Yulo made sure the Philippines' first gymnastics medal was worth the wait. Yulo won gold in the Olympic floor exercise final. In addition to being the Philippines' first medal in gymnastics, it's also only the second gold a Filipino athlete has won in any Olympics. When the last competitor's score was posted, Yulo burst into tears and sank to the floor. As he left the competition floor, he waved at a fan who was holding a Philippines' flag. Artem Dolgopyat of Israel won the silver medal and Jake Jarman of Britain claimed the bronze. No American man was in the floor final.

Aug 3, 2024; Paris, France; Carlos Edriel Yulo of the Philippines competes on the floor exercise the first day of gymnastics event finals during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Bercy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Simone Biles vault: Yurchenko double pike

The Biles II is also known as the Yurchenko double pike , one of five moves named after Simone Biles . Vaults are categorized by "families," which are based on the entry. On Yurchenko vaults, a gymnast does a roundoff onto the takeoff board and a back handspring onto the table. Biles then follows it with a double somersault in the piked position. Few men even try this vault, which is so difficult because of the power it takes to get two somersaults as well as its lack of a bailout. If something goes awry, more likely to land on her head or neck than her knees.

Biles began doing this vault in 2021 but didn't do it at a worlds or Olympics until the 2023 world championships. With a 6.4 difficulty value, it is the hardest vault in the women's code. The most difficult vault commonly executed by other gymnasts is valued at 5.6, eight-tenths lower than the Biles II, so doing it gives Biles a huge scoring advantage.

The rest of the field: Ukraine's Illia Kovtun (14.533), Kazakhstan's Milad Karimi (14.500), Great Britain's Luke Whitehouse (14.666), Spain's Rayderley Zapata (14.333), China's Zhang Boheng (13.933).

How many Olympic medals does Simone Biles have?

Biles now has won 10 Olympic medals . Seven of her medals are gold.

How many Olympics has Simone Biles been in?

The 2024 Paris Olympics are Simone Biles ' third Olympic Games.

How does gymnastics scoring work?

A gymnastics routine gets two scores : One for difficulty, also known as the D score or start value, and one for execution. Every gymnastics skill has a numerical value, and the D score is the sum total of the skills in a routine. The execution score, or E score, reflects how well the skills were done. A gymnast starts with a 10.0, and deductions for flaws and form errors are taken from there. Add the D and E scores together, and that's your total for an apparatus. (Vault scores will always be higher because it's a single skill.)

US womens gymnastics schedule

The U.S. women's gymnasts team will compete in these event finals.

Simone Biles :all-around, vault, floor exercise, balance beam.
Suni Lee :all-around, uneven bars, balance beam.
Jordan Chiles :floor exercise.
Jade Carey:vault.

How high can Simone Biles jump?

During her floor routine at Olympic gymnastics trials, Simone Biles jumped 12 feet in the air at one point.

Apparatus finals for gymnastics at Olympics

Here is the remaining gymnastics schedule at the Paris Olympics.

Sunday, Aug. 4: Still rings final, uneven bars final, men's vault final.
Monday, Aug. 5: Parallel bars final, balance beam final, high bar final, women's floor final

Olympic gymnastics results

Men's team final:Japan won gold, China won silver and the U.S. won bronze .
Women's team final:Simone Biles and the U.S. women's gymnastics team won gold .
Men's all-around final: Japan's Shinnosuke Oka won gold . Boheng Zhang and Ruoteng Xiao of China earned silver and bronze, respectively. USA's Paul Juda finished 14th, Frederick Richard finished 15th.
Women's all-around final: Simone Biles won gold , Brazil's Rebeca Andrade won silver , Suni Lee won bronze .
Women's vault final:Simone Biles won gold , Brazil's Rebeca Andrade took silver, USA's Jade Carey won bronze.
Men's pommel horse final:Stephen Nedoroscik won bronze after Ireland's Rhys McClenaghan took gold and Nariman Kurbanov of Kazakhstan won silver.

What are the twisties in gymnastics?

Biles missed most of the Tokyo Olympics after developing a case of " the twisties ," which caused her to lose her sense of where she was in the air and jeopardized her physical safety.

Simone Biles' husband

Simone Biles is married to NFL player Jonathan Owens , who will be at the all-around final today. At the team final on Tuesday, he sat with Biles' parents and wearing a T-shirt with "BILES" on it and a huge photo of his wife in action on it. He landed in Paris on Tuesday morning.

During the first rotation of Monday's team final, Owens was seen with a pen in hand, possibly recording scores, as Biles performed her vault routine. Mic'ed up on NBC's broadcast, Owens let out a healthy "let's go!" after Biles recorded a 14.900 on the vault, the highest score among the three U.S. gymnasts.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Olympic gymnastics highlights: Simone Biles wins gold on vault

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