Simone Biles has broken her silence after hitting out at the Olympic crowd when an out-of-character mistake earlier today ended up costing her a medal.
After winning all-around, vault and team gymnastics titles in Paris, Biles, 27, had the chance to add a fourth to her tally today as she took on the 10cm-wide individual balance beam.
However, she lost her balance while performing an aerial series and fell to the floor, much to the shock of those watching.
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The Olympian managed to regain composure and returned to the balance beam to earn a score of 13.100, but sadly it wasn’t enough for her to medal as she placed fifth.
The BBC reported that encouraging shouts of ‘Come on Simone’ could be heard in the venue when she had been on the beam, alongside ‘shushing’ sounds from others in the audience – something Biles had picked up on.
“Why are they all shushing?” she reportedly asked her fellow teammates and coach.
“As soon as I’m going they’re like shushing so much.”
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She has now spoken out about the ‘odd final’, telling the Press Association that she could hear various off-putting sounds while competing.
“The beam final is always the most stressful, usually we have music or background noise, whatever that may be, and honestly we do better in environments when there’s noise going on because it feels the most like practice,” she said.
“Today you could hear the ringtones going off, the photo clickers, whatever that was and you’re trying to stay in your zone and then the people start cheering and the shushing gets louder so they should be shushed because they’re louder.
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“I don’t know, it was really weird and awkward and we’d asked if we’ve could have some music or some background noise, so I’m not really sure what happened there. It’s not our favourite, none of us liked it.
“It was an odd beam final.”
Still, she’s hardly done badly for Paris, having ended the games with a silver medal on the floor.
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“Today has been absolutely wild,” Biles continued.
“I’ve been competing here for a week or so now, so obviously exhaustion sets in now but we still had to go out and compete one more time today and it’s such an honour to compete with these girls on the beam and floor.
“Obviously it wasn’t my best performances but on the day, whoever medalled medalled and that’s what is so exciting with gymnastics.
“I’m not upset about my performance or anything, I’m actually very happy, proud and even more excited that it’s over!
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“I’ve accomplished way more than my wildest dreams, not just at this Olympics but in the sport – I can’t be mad at my performances."
She added: “A couple of years ago I didn’t think I’d be back at an Olympic games so competing and walking away with four medals, I’m not mad about it, I’m pretty proud of myself and it’s always so exciting to compete.”
Topics: Simone Biles, Olympics, Sport
Jess Hardiman