Simone Biles and her US teammates stumble and fall behind Russia in gymnastics qualifying

By Edward Era Barbacena

 

TOKYO The road to a third consecutive Olympic gold medal for the US women’s gymnastics team led by Simone Biles will not be the crowning achievement everyone has been waiting for.

The heavily favored U.S. team ended their qualifying round behind Russia’s athletes on Sunday, showing they could eventually slip off the dizzying pedestal built for them by decade-long dominance of the U.S. gymnastics program and the hype surrounding Biles, her Super star.

The team is still guaranteed a place in the team final scheduled for Tuesday. And Biles, undefeated in general national, world and Olympic competitions since 2013, sided atop the individual standings as competition continued on Sunday night, likely qualifying for the floor and vault finals. His place in the beam final was less certain.

Biles had an unusual number of significant errors. She flew out of bounds and off the mat on her third tumbling pass in the floor exercise, took another big step out of bounds on her Cheng jump, and staggered back on her release. the balance beam.

The missteps she and other members of the US squad made in qualifying, combined with the Russians’ surprisingly strong performances, suggest a much more contested final than many had anticipated.