Off balance: phenomenon Simone Biles’ five gold Rio bid ends as Dutch gymnast wins beam
Biles’ bid for a record five women’s gymnastics gold medals in Rio ends when the US star was beaten into third place on the beam
Simone Biles’s bid for a record five women’s gymnastics gold medals in Rio ended on Monday when the US star was beaten into third place on the beam by Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands.
Biles – a gold medallist in the team, all-around and vault – fought to stay on the apparatus during her routine, scoring just 14.733 points.
It handed the 19-year-old her first defeat in a final of the apparatus since 2013.
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“You guys want it more than I do,” she said of the bid for five gold medals.
Wevers, 24, surged to gold with 15.466 points ahead of American Lauren Hernandez, who won silver with 15.333, giving the Netherlands just a second women’s Olympic gold – 88 years after the Dutch team’s victory.
Wevers unexpectedly found herself in the limelight as she was congratulated in person afterwards by King Willem-Alexander, and took a phone call from Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte.
“He just said he was really proud of me,” she said of the monarch.