Team USA has won a gold medal in women’s gymnastics for the fourth consecutive time. After Simone Biles completed an incredible floor routine on Tuesday, July 30, she joined her teammates, Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera, to await their final score. The team earned a 171.296. Italy won silver, the nation’s first team medal in nearly 100 years, and Brazil won bronze, which is their first-ever Olympic team medal in history.
Now that Team USA has clinched another gold medal, Simone, 27, is now the United States’ most decorated gymnast in history with eight medals, surpassing Shannon Miller‘s record. Although the GOAT of gymnastics is only in her 20s, she broke a new record — becoming the oldest female American gymnast to win a gold medal.
After receiving their final team score, all five gymnasts posed in front of an American flag for pictures while the room erupted into cheers. The U.S. and Italian teams also took a moment to congratulate one another.
The epic victory comes three years after Simone and Suni, 21, competed at the Tokyo Olympics, where Simone had to withdraw from the competition after suffering from the “twisties.” The phenomenon is a mental block and leaves a gymnast temporarily incapable of measuring where they are in the air. The disconnect from the mind and body can be dangerous when a gymnast attempts to land.
The 2020 team ended up winning silver for Team USA. Suni went on to win gold for the women’s individual all-around final.
Returning to this year’s Olympic Games was a difficult journey for both Suni and Simone. Suni was diagnosed with two forms of kidney disease, and she briefly stepped back from the sport to focus on her health.
“We didn’t think I would be here,” Suni said during an appearance on TODAY earlier this month. “So, getting through all of those events and … everything that we had to go through this week to get to where we are right now, it was just such a hard, incredible journey.”
As for Simone, she addressed the public’s criticism over her 2021 Olympic withdrawal in her Netflix docuseries, Simone Biles: Rising.