It’s not just Simone Biles — a number of gymnasts and coaches are speaking out about the “weird and awkward” atmosphere during the individual balance beam final at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Monday.
The event saw half of the finalists, four out of eight, fall from the beam: Team USA’s Biles and Sunisa Lee, Brazil’s Julia Soares and Romania’s Sabrina Maneca-Voinea. In the end, Italy’s Alice D’Amato claimed gold, China’s Zhou Yaqin earned silver and Italy’s Manila Esposito clinched bronze.
Under normal circumstances, the balance beam is considered one of the most difficult and mentally-challenging gymnastics events — gymnasts are asked to land a series of high-flying twists and leaps on a wooden beam just 10 cm wide — but Monday’s Olympic final was far from ideal.
The crowd was eerily quiet and, at times, shushed those who were cheering, including athletes who were supporting their teammates on the sidelines. On top of that, no music played during the individual finals. Prior to Monday, athletes got to perform to music during the qualifying, team finals and all-around finals for both the men and women.
“It was really weird and awkward,” said Biles, who finished fifth despite having qualified in second place. “We’ve asked several times if we can have some music, or some background noise. I’m not really sure what happened there, but yeah, not our favourite. None of us liked it.”
Although it may seem counterintuitive, gymnasts often prefer noisy arenas, even on an apparatus as precarious as the beam, as it helps the athlete to focus more on the task at hand. “Honestly, we do better in environments when there’s noise going on because it feels most like practice,” Biles told reporters.
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After finishing her beam routine, Biles looked bewildered and could be heard asking her teammate Lee, “Why are they shushing?”
Lee, who also fell on the beam, echoed Biles’ sentiments regarding the strange energy from the crowd.
“You could feel the tension in the room. I mean, the crowd shushing us for cheering like we were, we didn’t like that because it’s just so silent in there,” Lee said after finishing sixth. “I love hearing my teammates cheer for me.”
The format of apparatus finals also means only one gymnast competes at any given time, instead of multiple gymnasts competing on different parts of the floor. That heaped on even more pressure as the athletes felt every set of eyes in Paris’ Bercy Arena focused on them.
“It adds to the stress, just because … you’re the only one up there,” said Lee. “The pressure was definitely on.”
Biles’ coach, Cecile Landi, also acknowledged the strange atmosphere.
“The crowd was great except for the ‘shushing’ on the beam,” she said after the competition.
And it wasn’t just Team USA that had gripes with Monday’s crowd. Bronze medal winner Manila Esposito also felt affected by the quiet arena.
“There was a lot of silence in the gym and it was a little bit more stressful because of this,” she said, “but it was nice because when we finished the exercise, it was even louder than usual.”
International Gymnastics Federation senior communications manager Meike Behrensen said in an email to the Associated Press that the decision to not play music during the final was “part of the sport presentation plan at Paris 2024.”
It’s impossible to say for certain if the crowd dynamics had a meaningful impact on Monday’s podium placements. Lee also acknowledged that she felt pressure because Monday was the final day of women’s gymnastics events.
“I don’t know if you could tell, but a lot of people were definitely feeling it. I think it was the crowd but also just knowing that we’re so close to being done and just adding that extra stress of wanting to end it off the right way,” she said.
Despite the challenging beam final, Simone Biles and Team USA walked away from the women’s gymnastics competitions with their heads held high, and a lot of precious metal around their necks.
Biles earned four medals at the Paris 2024 Olympics — three gold and one silver — and made history by extending her record as the most-decorated gymnast of all time.
— with files from Reuters
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