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Simone Biles, US gymnastics teammates leaned on each other to win this Olympic gold medal
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- Simone Biles, US gymnastics teammates leaned on each other to win this Olympic gold medal
Editor's note: Simone Biles has won Olympic gold in the team final , all-around final and vault final at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
PARIS — Aly Raisman won Olympic gold medals as a member of both the "Fierce Five" in 2012, and the "Final Five" in 2016. So it was fitting, in that way, that she was the person in the news conference Tuesday night who asked the members of the U.S. women's gymnastics team at the Paris Olympics what they would like their gold medal-winning team to be called.
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"I'm not going to say it," Simone Biles replied.
"Abbreviate it, just abbreviate it," Jordan Chiles said.
Biles got through the first two letters, "F" and "A," before finally giving up and pulling back the curtain on the team name.
"Eff Around And Find Out," she said, as laughter filled the room.
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Jul 30, 2024; Paris, France; Team United States celebrates winning gold in the women’s team final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Bercy Arena. Mandatory Credit: James Lang-USA TODAY Sports
For a veteran-heavy group with four returning Olympians and plenty of personality, it definitely works. Yet in P.G. terms, maybe "Fulfilled Five" would be more apt.
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Biles, Chiles, Jade Carey and Suni Lee all arrived at these Games having talked about redemption . None of them needed to come back for another Olympic run. In fact, they all had good reasons not to − various forms and degrees of adversity that popped up over the past three years. Yet there they were atop the podium Tuesday night, after finishing nearly six full points ahead of silver medalists Italy and almost seven in front of Brazil, which won bronze.
"It's been a roller coaster over the past three years," said Cecile Landi, the U.S. coach and personal coach of Biles and Chiles. "A lot of good times, and very difficult times."
Biles, of course, took a lengthy hiatus from gymnastics after suffering a case of the "twisties" at the Tokyo Games, which prompted her to withdraw from several of her planned events − including the team final. Lee, the reigning Olympic all-around champion, had been diagnosed with two kidney diseases that caused swelling throughout her body and made it difficult to train. Carey and Chiles competed in college and were, at various points, written off.
"This team's definitely been through a lot," Lee said.
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They've talked about powering through those obstacles, in part, by relying on each another.
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Even while they were competing against one another in individual competitions over the course of the year, there were always signs of the genuine relationships that had grown between the returning members of this team. At the national championships earlier this summer, Biles noticed that Lee was struggling and walked across the gym during the competition to talk with her about it . In between rotations, it was normal to see Biles and Carey chatting, with Biles bursting out into laughter.
"Even (Monday) night, we were all having a little powwow − (Chiles, Lee and I) in the room, just talking about our age, what we're going through, how hard the Olympics is and all that stuff," Biles said. "... I think it translates out of the gym, as well. And once we're good and close and tight knit outside, then you see what you saw tonight. It was pretty good. It was fun. And we supported each other."
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When pressed for more details, Biles said she was actually asleep at the time. And Chiles said she woke the 27-year-old up so they could all talk.
The conversation, Biles said, essentially revolved around nerves and communication − maybe little moments in practice where one member of the team would say they are doing OK, but secretly know that wasn't true.
"That's kind of the nature of the conversation, just letting each other know that we can lean on each other, because we've been there," Biles said. "It's really hard to be doing what we were doing and it's easier if we can lean on each other."
Added Lee: "I think it just helps us, helped me at least, have a better understanding and just know that I can lean on them whenever I need it. And it helped me a lot."
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Less than 24 hours after that nighttime conversation, they had their golds. After sharing the emotionally taxing experience of Tokyo, the quartet of returning Olympians − and 16-year-old Hezly Rivera − climbed atop the podium and pretended to bite their new hardware as a wall of cameras flashed. In terms of average age, this was the oldest women's gymnastics team that the U.S. has fielded at the Olympics since 1952. And it's just the fourth women's team to win Olympic gold, following the Final Five, Fierce Five and the Magnificent Seven in 1996.
Which brings us back to that pesky team name. As they left Tuesday night's news conference, Biles and Lee said they'd been trying to think of something less crass than the the "Eff Around and Find Out Five" but had been striking out. Redemption Five? Eh. Redeem Team? Already taken.
"That's for you all to come up with," Biles said.
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad .
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Simone Biles, USA gymnastics teammates share Olympic gold medal bond
