American gymnast Simone Biles is on the verge of winning her eighth Olympic medal – her fifth gold – on Tuesday, as the United States are favourites in the team competition at Paris 2024 after disappointing at previous Games.
Biles looked set to break all Olympic gymnastics records when she won five medals at Rio 2016 (four gold), but at Tokyo 2020 she won just one silver and one bronze, underlining the importance of mental health for top athletes.
At 27, Biles could join the group of gymnasts with the third most Olympic titles, equalling the five titles held by Hungary’s Ágnes Keleti, Russia’s Polina Astakhova and Romania’s Nadia Comaneci, behind the Czech Republic’s Vera Caslavska (seven) and Russia’s Larisa Latynina (nine).
If the USA show the same superiority in the team final as they did in qualifying, Biles will easily win her fifth gold medal and could begin to reclaim the Olympic hegemony in women’s artistic gymnastics in Paris that she lost in Tokyo.