Simone Biles fumed at the Olympic crowd after missing out on a medal in the gymnastics beam final.
The superstar gymnast suffered a rare fall in today’s beam final in Paris, stumbling and then coming off the apparatus to put an end to her medal hopes.
The 27-year-old, chasing a third Olympic gold in the French capital, made a strong start to her routine before falling off the beam, prompting gasps from the crowd.
Biles regained her composure to complete her routine but was only given a score of 13.100, putting her fourth before the final run from Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade.
Superstar gymnast Biles was evidently not happy as she returned to the seating area alongside her coach and vented towards the crowd at the Bercy Arena, accusing them of making unnecessary noises during her routine.
‘Stop shushing!’ she exclaimed, turning to the crowd and throwing her arms up in the air.
‘Why are they all shushing?! As soon as I’m going they’re like “shushing” so much.’
“I don’t think we’ve ever seen Simone Biles fall off the beam at a major championship.” #Olympics #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/3A6OHjGknt
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 5, 2024
Fellow American gymnast Sunisa Lee responded: ‘I don’t know why. Are they [the organisers] telling them to?’
Reacting to the incident, Commonwealth Games gold-winning gymnast Craig Heap said on BBC TV: ‘I’ve never seen Simone Biles look so angry in my life.
‘She was not happy. Something has gone on in the arena.
‘Simone is not happy at all. It just goes to show she is a human being. All the other ladies in that final have made mistakes. She’s not invincible.’
BBC commentator Matt Baker added: ‘She’s talking about the atmosphere. She’s talking about shushing.
The feeling in here is like a cauldron when the gymnasts are on. Oh my word.’
‘While the crowd appeared generally quiet during Biles’ routine, there was a couple of shouts of ‘come on Simone’, prompting other fans to shush.
Biles, who returns to the Bercy Arena for the floor final at 1.20pm, eventually finished just fifth as Italy’s Alice D’Amato claimed gold in the beam final.
D’Amato’s Italy team-mate Manila Esposito claimed bronze, with China’s Zhou Yaqin taking silver.
Biles was said to have ‘marched off’ after the final as she turns her attention to the floor final this afternoon.
‘We usually say about beam that who stays on wins a medal, and unfortunately that’s the way it’s gone,’ ex-Great Britain gymnast Beth Tweddle said.
‘There was a lot of errors in that final. The two Italians went out and did their routines cleanly, and that’s the result.
‘The pressure of an Olympic final is so much and you only have to be slightly off line and that’s game over. You cannot pull it back. They were going for some difficult elements out there.’
The spotlight was firmly on Biles coming into the Paris Olympics following her Tokyo 2020 nightmare but she looked back to her best to help Team USA win the team event last week.
