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Biles, an athlete who has transcended the sport
to become a global icon, stunned the world when she withdrew
from the Tokyo Games three years ago with a mental block that
made it dangerous to perform her high-flying routines.
She
returned to the Olympic stage in Paris happy and healthy and won
three golds -- in the team event, all-around and vault -- and
took silver in the floor exercise after losing to her Brazilian
rival Rebeca Andrade by the slimmest of margins.
In a balance beam final where Biles was one of four gymnasts to
fall from the apparatus, Alice D'Amato emerged the surprise
winner to clinch Italy's first women's gymnastics gold medal.
Algerian teenager Kaylia Nemour also made history with an
emotional gold-medal victory on the asymmetric bars to give
Africa their first ever gymnastics medal.
On the men's side, China blew a huge late lead against Japan in
the team event after Su Weide fell twice from the horizontal bar
in the final rotation.
That shocking turnaround gave 20-year-old Japanese breakout star
Shinnosuke Oka his first gold medal of the Games, but it would
not be his last.
In the all-around final, defending champion Daiki Hashimoto of
Japan and China's Zhang Boheng made costly early errors while
Oka was solid across all six rotations to emerge as the new
champion.
Oka capped his stay in Paris with a gold-medal performance on
the horizontal bar and a bronze in parallel bars in a final that
was dominated by China's Zou Jingyuan, known as the 'king of
parallel bars.'
China also struck gold when Liu Yang retained his rings title.
Rhys McClenaghan gave Ireland the country's first gymnastics
title with a gold-medal effort on pommel horse.
And Carlos Edriel Yulo broke new ground for the Philippines and
will take gold medals in vault and floor exercise to one -- or
possibly two -- new homes that a real estate company has
promised to give anyone winning gold for the team.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Paris; editing by Clare Fallon) [© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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