The American athlete aims for her 10th Olympic medal
Simone Biles will be chasing her third gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics today as she takes on Brazil's Rebeca Andrade in the vault final, the only gymnast to ever "stress" the American superstar.
Fans at Bercy Arena will be on the lookout for Andrade's unprecedented triple twist Yurchenko vault, which she has yet to debut at the Olympics. This vault would significantly bring Andrade's goal potential closer to Biles, KosovaPress reports.
"She is very close. I've never had an athlete that close, so it definitely put me on my toes,” Biles told reporters Thursday after holding off Andrade in the all-around final to secure the medal.
“I'm feeling uncomfortable, guys. I don't like this feeling. I was stressed," she said further.
Andrade has already passed Biles in a major competition, when Biles fell on her doubles Yurchenko in the vault final at last year's world championships, losing to Andrade by two-tenths of a point.
Biles will become the third most decorated gymnast with 10 Olympic medals if she makes it to the medal podium, as expected.
The men's gymnasts will compete Saturday in floor exercise and pommel horse, the latter of which could feature the most exciting battle for the gold medal among all the apparatus finals.
The starting list for the pommel horse is loaded with talent, as the top three qualifiers share 12 Olympic and world medals on the apparatus, eight of them gold.
Max Whitlock, who won gold at home in Rio and Tokyo, qualified third as the 31-year-old was overtaken in the standings by Rhys McClenaghan and Stephen Nedoroscik, both 25.
The pommel horse is often compared to the women's balance beam as falls can easily come. Two men who qualified 0.2 points behind the leader, including Ukraine's Oleg Verniaiev, could benefit from any mistakes by the top gymnasts.
Britain's Jake Jarman qualified first in the floor exercise but China's Zhang Boheng, who trailed Jarman by half a point in the preliminaries, will be looking for redemption after costly mistakes on the apparatus, including a fall on his head during the competition. final that forced him to settle for silver behind Japan's Shinnosuke Oka.
