With a salute and a silver medal, Simone Biles shows the humanity that goes with her greatness. Despite an … Read More

Immediately, after Simone Biles closed out her final transcendent floor routine and acknowledged the judges, she held her arms above her head in a salute for as long as she could.

It was partly a cheeky, sarcastic gesture, a reference to the deduction she seemingly received in the preceding final for not properly saluting to all judges, but it was also perfect. T

he Bercy Arena, filled again for one last glimpse of her this year, responded by saluting her in turn with a long, heartfelt ovation.

Although the American did not close out her Paris Olympics with a golden picturesque finish in a chaotic last day of artistic gymnastics, her final day of competition here was rather an exhibition of the sportsmanship and humanity that has accompanied her greatness. After a fall on the balance beam led to a fifth-place finish, Biles won a silver medal on the floor exercise.

With gold medals in the all-around, team and vault competitions, plus the silver medal on the floor exercise, the 27-year-old leaves Paris with four more Olympic medals.

She is now the joint-second most decorated female gymnast at the Games with 11 medals in total and she has also extended her own record as the most decorated gymnast of all time, male or female, with 41 Olympic and world championship medals.

Much of the final day was a demonstration of how difficult and fraught elite gymnastics is. In the balance beam final, four gymnasts fell and another, the silver medallist Zhou Yaqin, lost her balance on a leap and put her hands down on the beam. As so many of her peers faltered, Italy’s Alice D’Amato produced a cool beam routine that would seal her first Olympic gold medal.

Although Biles’s first and third passes – her triple twisting double-back somersault and the Biles – were both spectacular, Biles landed directly out of bounds on her second and fourth passes, which each incur a 0.3 deduction in addition to the landing deductions. She finished with a score of 14.133, moving into second place behind Andrade, who clinched her second Olympic gold medal after winning vault in Tokyo. As soon as Biles received her score, she walked over to Andrade and congratulated her.

Throughout the past week, Biles has been pushed to the limit by the Brazilian, who has offered her less room for error than in any competition over the past 10 years, and Biles has responded to that challenge brilliantly. Finally, Andrade has beaten her. While Biles has further cemented her status as the greatest gymnast of all time, Andrade is building a special career as one of the greats in her own right.

Having been drawn seventh in the lineup, Biles stepped up to the beam knowing she could win gold with just a solid performance, but she instead fell off on her backwards layout stepout somersault. Despite her otherworldly talents, she is still human. She is still susceptible to the nerves and stresses of every gymnast. After competing in 17 routines across a frantic nine days, the physical and mental fatigue has long set in. Her humanity is what makes her success so special.

The afternoon ended on the floor exercise and, with a medal on the line, Rebeca Andrade produced her very best floor routine of the Olympics.

Having incurred significant landing deductions all week with her complex opening pass, a full-twisting front layout somersault to a full twisting back tumbling pass, this time she stuck it cold.

Her landings on her subsequent tumbling passes were excellent and she set the bar high with a score of 14.166.