How the U.S. Team Won the Olympic Women’s Gymnastics Gold (2024)

1	United States	171.296
2	Italy	-5.802	points behind
3	Brazil	-6.799

The United States took the gold medal in the women’s gymnastics team final at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, beginning with solid vaults from Simone Biles and Jade Carey and ending with a bringing-down-the-house routine by Biles on the floor exercise.

A fall by Jordan Chiles while mounting the beam did not come close to stopping the United States from taking the top spot — particularly once Sunisa Lee followed Chiles on the beam with a spectacular performance that earned a score more than half a point higher than her qualifying routine. Chiles later put in her own exceptional performance on the floor.

Biles was on target from the first moments of the competition, when she nailed a difficult vault called a Cheng in the same event that took her out of the team final in Tokyo three years ago.

Team Italy took the silver, its first Olympic team medal in women’s gymnastics since 1928. And despite wobbles on the beam by Brazilians Flavia Saraiva and Rebeca Andrade — both during a skill called a switch ring leap — their team placed third for its first-ever Olympic team medal. That was thanks in large part to Andrade’s stunning vault, which scored a 15.1. Brazil edged out Britain, which had a strong routine on the uneven bars by Becky Downie.

China suffered in the rankings after Zhou Yaqin’s beam routine and Qiu Qiyuan’s bars, expected to be powerhouse events for the country, both included serious mistakes.

Vault

Carey, who had been expected to compete on both vault and floor when she was named to the Olympic team, ended up competing only on vault on Tuesday after spending much of the past week sick. Like Biles, Carey executed a Cheng, which consists of a roundoff onto the springboard, a half turn onto the vaulting table, and a front flip with a straight body and one and a half twists.

Her legs briefly came apart early in the vault, causing a small deduction. But her body form was good after that, and she landed with just the smallest of bounces.

Uneven Bars

Lee delivered the team’s highest score on the uneven bars — her best event and one in which she has a chance of winning an individual medal a few days from now — despite a small error. Her feet brushed the mat as she performed a difficult full-twisting transition from the high bar to the low bar, costing her three-tenths of a point.

But the rest of her routine was rock-solid, starting with a release move called a Nabieva that very few gymnasts are capable of, and finishing with a nearly stuck full-twisting double back flip.

Balance Beam

The most significant stumble for the United States came during Chiles’s routine on the balance beam, when she fell during her mount. The rest of her routine was solid, and she earned a 12.733.

In a pressure-filled situation — competing just minutes after Chiles had fallen — Lee performed one of the best beam routines of her career. She didn’t wobble once, and had only a tiny hop on the landing of her dismount.

“I don’t know why, but I kind of took the pressure off myself because I was, like, ‘You know what? This doesn’t have to be perfect. Just going to go up there and do what I normally do and remember to focus and breathe,’ ” Lee said on Tuesday night after her team’s victory. “And I think that’s exactly what I did.”

One of the toughest parts of her routine was a series of three flips: a side aerial, which is a cartwheel without hands, connected directly into two back layouts.

Floor Exercise

After her earlier mistake on beam, Chiles came roaring back with a powerful floor routine choreographed to a medley of Beyoncé songs.

While many gymnasts do four tumbling passes, Chiles does only three; their difficulty is high enough that her routine is competitive with the best in the world anyway. One of the most complex is her second pass: a full-twisting front flip connected immediately into a roundoff, back handspring and full-twisting double back flip.

“Going into tonight, we did what we were supposed to, but it just felt a little bit different. It was super exciting,” Biles said Tuesday night. “We had fun. We enjoyed each other’s time out there, and we just did our gymnastics.”

Sunisa Lee, right, and Jordan Chiles celebrating their victory.

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times