U.S. gymnast Simone Biles suffers injury scare in warmups ahead of qualifying, update from coach

The Olympics are underway in Paris and with that the United States Women’s Gymnastics team is looking to take home a gold medal in the team all-around. To do that, they’ll likely need Simone Biles to be at her best.

However, Biles appeared to suffer an injury scare in warmups prior to the qualifying competition on Sunday and prompting an update from her coach, Cecile Landi, afterward.

According to Landi, Biles’ injury is a calf issue from a couple of weeks ago. It flared up on her during warmups for the floor routine. Despite that scare, there was never any consideration of withdrawing Biles from the competition.

“She felt better at the end,” Landi said. “On bars, she started to feel better.”

WOW. 😲

There are no words for Simone Biles. #ParisOlympics

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— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 28, 2024

Simone Biles was seen dealing with that injury in warmups and ended up having to tape her lower leg. She was also seen jogging around the team bench to test it out.

It still ended up being a big score on floor routine for Biles, which she’s been known for throughout her career. She scored a 14.6 routine. That should send her to the final in the floor exercise.

From the U.S. team’s perspective, that big score for Simone Biles through an injury was also huge. Her teammate and defending gold medalist on the floor exercise, Jade Carey, had a disastrous routine, scoring only a 10.633, meaning she’s not going to even go to the final.

This comes after Biles had major issues in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. There, she experienced the ‘twisties’ and was forced to withdraw from the team final. It’s a result that she’s clearly hoping to avoid this time around in Paris.

The United States took the silver medal in Tokyo for the women’s team all around, which was seen as a disappointment at the time. It also snapped a streak by the U.S. of two straight gold medals in the women’s all around, going back to the 2012 Olympics in London. Since 1992, the United States has never not at least won a medal in the event.

Individually, an American woman has won the individual all around in every Olympics since 2004 in Athens. That includes Simone Biles in 2016. Twice in that span, an American woman also won silver.

In her Olympic career, Simone Biles has four gold medals, a silver medal, and two bronze medals. That puts her ninth all-time for total medals won.