Simone Biles to compete on all four events at Olympic team finals despite calf injury
PARIS (AP) — A calf injury isn’t going to slow down Simone Biles.
The American gymnastics star is in the lineup for all four events during Tuesday night’s Olympic team finals.
Biles tweaked her left calf while warming up for floor exercise during qualifying on Sunday. She retreated briefly to have the calf taped but then returned and posted the top scores on floor and vault on her way to topping the all-around.
Last week, U.S. team leaders had considered holding Biles out of the uneven bars in team finals to give her a small break during the Games. Instead, Biles will be part of every event during the finals, when three gymnasts compete and all three scores count. Her husband, Jonathan Owens, is expected to be there.
The Americans are heavily favored to win gold after finishing runner-up to Russia in Tokyo three years ago.
Biles will go last for the U.S. on three events — vault, floor exercise and balance beam — and will be up second on uneven bars.
Jordan Chiles, who finished fourth in the all-around during qualifying behind Biles, Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade and 2020 Olympic champion Sunisa Lee, will also compete on all four events.
Chiles, part of the silver medal-winning U.S. team three years ago, will lead off on vault, bars and balance beam and go second behind Lee on floor exercise.
Lee will be the third American on uneven bars, her signature event. She will be second on beam and first on floor exercise.
The only unexpected tweak to the lineup is on floor, where 2020 Olympic floor exercise champion Jade Carey will sit. Carey, who will vault, struggled on floor during qualifying and said afterward she is dealing with an illness.
Hezly Rivera, at 16 the youngest member of the five-woman team, is not scheduled to compete. Rivera was part of the lineup on bars and beam during qualifying, though her scores on each event were dropped from the team total.
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