What happened to Simone Biles at the Olympics team competition?
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Simone Biles is shockingly out of team competition at the Olympics.
The world renowned gymnast unexpectedly made a "costly error" during the women's gymnastics team final on Tuesday when she "only completed 1 ½ twist on her vault when she was supposed to perform a 2 ½," The Washington Post reports.
"Simone Biles makes mistakes sometimes," The New York Times' Maggie Astor wrote. "That's not unprecedented. But I have never, not once, seen her bail out of a vault like that."
Broadcasters on NBC subsequently revealed that Biles had "pulled out of the entire team finals," in what they described as "unbelievably shocking news." Details about why Biles pulled out were not provided, but the Associated Press reported that she suffered an "apparent injury." She was seen speaking with a member of medical staff, according to the Post.
Later, though, an NBC announcer reported "it is not injury related" and that, according to her coach, it's "a mental issue that Simone is having." A statement from the U.S. team said she withdrew "due to a medical issue."
"The Americans will be forced to finish the rest of the competition without her, severely hampering their bid to claim a third straight Olympic title," the AP wrote. Indeed, the news was described on NBC's broadcast as a "huge blow to team U.S.A.'s chances." At the halfway point, the U.S. team was trailing Russia by 2.5 points, according to the Post.
Biles had earlier in the week opened up on Instagram about the pressure she was feeling heading into the finals.
"I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times," she wrote. "I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn't affect me but damn sometimes it's hard."
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