‘It was really weird’ – Simone Biles admits crowd impact as final day at Paris Olympics ends without more gold
Simone Biles had eyes on a first ever five gold medal haul at the Olympics - but things didn't quite go to plan on the final day of gymnastics competition.
The American superstar lined up in both the beam and floor finals on Monday looking to add to the team, individual and vault gold medals she had already collected in Paris.
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However, after dramatically slipping off the balance beam she was left unhappy with the crowd and judges and a fifth-placed finish before returning later in the day to miss out on gold in the floor - settling for a silver instead.
Taking to the floor as the penultimate athlete of the beam competition, Biles had started impressively with a typically difficult routine.
But as she slid off - one of several gymnasts to come off the apparatus - in the latter part of her performance, commentators proclaimed 'she is human after all.'
The drama was not over as after she climbed back onto the beam to complete the routine, she was seemingly unhappy with the crowd - which included Tom Brady - for their attempts to keep everyone quiet.
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'Stop shushing, why are they shushing' she appeared to say as she waited for the scores to come in.
Her unhappiness continued as the judges took an age to deliver her score with Biles appearing to say 'what are they waiting for?'
Eventually he scores came in and of was only good enough for fourth place, with Brazil's Rebecca Andrade still to perform.
In the end Italy's Alice D'Amato performed brilliantly to claim gold, with her teammate Manila Esposito in bronze.
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China's Zhou Yaqin, who had performed first, took silver having led for much of the competition before D'Amato's spectacular display.
Speaking afterwards, Biles admitted it was an 'odd' final. She said: "The beam final is always the most stressful, usually we have music or background noise, whatever that may be, and honestly we do better in environments when there's noise going on because it feels the most like practice.
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"Today you could hear the ringtones going off, the photo clickers, whatever that was and you're trying to stay in your zone and then the people start cheering and the shushing gets louder so they should be shushed because they're louder.
"I don't know, it was really weird and awkward and we'd asked if we've could have some music or some background noise, so I'm not really sure what happened there. It's not our favourite, none of us liked it.
"It was an odd beam final."
Tied with Biles for fifth was US teammate Sunisa Lee who said afterwards: “The pressure was definitely on.
“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.”
Biles was back in the arena later in the day chasing a second Olympic gold in the floor competition which she won in 2016.
Despite a spectacular routine, she twice stepped outside the floor boundary and that resulted in 0.6pts of deduction - a result that handed Brazil's Rebeca Andrade the gold medal.
Biles finished just .033 behind the dazzling Andrade, meaning a clean routine - or even just one step outside the boundary would likely have delivered her an eighth career gold medal.
Biles has never hidden her admiration for rival Andrade and both she and third placed Jordan Chiles bowed to the Brazilian during the medal ceremony.
She said of her rival: "I love Rebeca, she's incredible. She's so amazing, a queen, it was an all-black podium so that was super exciting for us and then Jordan said 'shall we bow to her' and I said 'absolutely' - that's why we did. She's so exciting to watch and it was the right thing to do."
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Following her dramatic exit in Tokyo three years ago, Biles has returned with four medals in Paris and all eyes are on whether she will take aim at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, when she will be 31.
Her second Olympic silver in her final event in Paris, paired with seven gold and two bronze gives her a total of 11 Olympic medals.
She reflected: "Today has been absolutely wild. I've been competing here for a week or so now, so obviously exhaustion sets in now but we still had to go out and compete one more time today and it's such an honour to compete with these girls on the beam and floor.
"Obviously it wasn't my best performances but on the day, whoever medalled medalled and that's what is so exciting with gymnastics.
"I'm not upset about my performance or anything, I'm actually very happy, proud and even more excited that it's over!
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"I've accomplished way more than my wildest dreams, not just at this Olympics but in the sport - I can't be mad at my performances.
"A couple of years ago I didn't think I'd be back at an Olympic games so competing and walking away with four medals, I'm not mad about it, I'm pretty proud of myself and it's always so exciting to compete."
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