Despite injury, Simone Biles will perform on all apparatus at Olympic team finals

Biles’ coach, Cecile Landi, said after the first day of women’s competition that Biles felt pain in her calf during warm-ups before taking the field, a recurrence of a problem from a few weeks earlier. Landi said Biles never thought of withdrawing. She finished the meet and topped the all-around standings. Biles had one of her best performances, finishing nearly two points ahead of her top rival, Rebecca Andrade of Brazil, and leading the U.S. team to a total score that was more than five points ahead of second-place Italy.

Scores don’t add up in the team final, but because of their difficult routines and Biles’ dominance, the U.S. women have room for error.

Chelsey Memmel, technical head of the US High Performance staff, said before the start of the competition that Biles would be given the opportunity to compete on fewer apparatus in the team final if it would help ease the pressure on her. Landy indicated that Biles’ weakest event, the bars, would be the apparatus she would skip.

But Biles will be in all four lineups, which also means she has a chance to debut a new element on bars that will be named after her if she performs it successfully. Biles did not advance to the bars final, so the team competition and all-around final are her only remaining chances to highlight that skill at these Games — a front circling element with a 1½ pirouette.

Jade Carey, who said she has been feeling ill recently, is only in the vault lineup for the team competition. She is the reigning Olympic gold medalist on floor, but struggled in the qualifying round, falling out on her final tumbling pass. Jordan Chiles is in the lineup on every apparatus. Chiles missed a chance to compete in the all-around final; she finished fourth overall, but because Biles and Sunisa Lee scored better, she could not advance. Countries are limited to two athletes per final.

In the team final, Lee will compete on bars, beam and floor. 16-year-old Hazley Rivera will not compete at all. Rivera was shaky on beam in the qualifying round, and that was the apparatus she had the best chance of competing on. It appears that the US staff relied too much on the qualifying round results when determining the lineup.