Team USA won gold in the women’s gymnastics team final at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, July 30, marking a dramatic return to form for superstar Simone Biles, who helped lead her team to victory after withdrawing mid-competition from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Team USA of Biles, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee and Hezly Rivera bested Italy and Brazil, who placed second and third respectively, with a final score of 171.296, 5.802 above the silver medal finishers.
This marks the fifth gold medal for Biles, 27, the second for Lee and Carey and the first for Chiles and Rivera, the latter of whom did not participate in any apparatuses on Tuesday. Team USA previously won silver in the event at the Tokyo and Beijing Games, and gold in Rio and London.
Chiles, 23, Carey, 24, and Biles started things off strong on the vault, where they all scored above a 14 (Biles, who won gold in the same competition in Rio in 2016, scored the highest, with 14.900).
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Then on the uneven bars, Chiles, Biles and Lee, 21, kept the momentum up, with all scoring above a 14 once more. Lee led her team on balance beam with 14.600, and on the floor routine, Lee scored a 13.533, Chiles a 13.966 and Biles a 14.666.
“It was amazing to watch,” U.S. gymnastics technical lead Chellsie Memmel told reporters, including PEOPLE, after competition ended. “I know I was nervous throughout the whole competition, but they do their job.”
Speaking of Biles, Memmel said it “speaks volumes of her strength,” to be able to make this comeback.
“We all knew she could do it, like that wasn’t ever a question in my mind that she could do it and it continues to just solidify her place as the greatest gymnast of all time.”
Plenty of famous faces and loved ones were in the crowd at Bercy Arena to cheer on the women’s gymnastics team, which scored gold just one night after the U.S. men’s team took home a bronze medal, their first medal since 2008.
Next up is the individual finals, which will start with the all-around on Aug. 1. Biles and Lee, who won gold in Tokyo after Biles withdrew, will compete for the U.S. It’ll mark the first time that two all-around gold medalists have gone head-to-head at an Olympic games.