Simone Biles is out of the vault and bars finals. Here’s who will replace her.
Simone Biles will not compete in the Olympics finals for at least two of the four individual women’s gymnastics events, vault and the uneven bars, USA Gymnastics said.
“She will continue to be evaluated daily to determine whether to compete in the finals for floor exercise and balance beam,” the federation announced.
After qualifying for the all-around and all four event finals, Biles suddenly withdrew from competition during the team finals on Tuesday. In a series of Instagram posts, the 24-year-old said she is battling the “twisties,” a mental block that causes gymnasts lose track of their positioning midair.
“It’s honestly petrifying trying to do a skill but not having your mind & body in sync,” she said in the posts.
The women’s vault and bars finals are scheduled for Sunday, the women’s floor final is Monday, and the beam final is Tuesday. Eight gymnasts will compete in each event.
In vault, Biles’ absence opens up a spot for MyKayla Skinner, who had declared herself “heartbroken” when the rules kept her out of the final even though she had finished fourth in the vault qualifier. A maximum of two gymnasts from any one nation are allowed to advance, and those spots had gone to her teammates Biles and Jade Carey, who finished first and second.
Believing her competition career to be over, Skinner was making arrangements to fly home when she was asked to stay in Tokyo in case Biles could not compete.
Following USA Gymnastics’ announcement Saturday, Skinner said in a post on Instagram: “Looks like I get to put a competition leo on just one more time.” The 24-year-old has said she plans to retire from gymnastics after the Olympics, forgoing her last year of eligibility at University of Utah.
In bars, the gymnast who will step up to event finals is Melanie de Jesus dos Santos of France.
For the U.S., Sunisa Lee, who won the all-around title, will compete in bars and beam. Carey will compete on the floor as well as vault.
The-CNN-Wire
& © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.