Golden Girls (gymnastics)

The Golden Girls was the artistic gymnastics team that won the team gold medal for the United States in the women's team competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. The five members of the team were Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, and Hezly Rivera. Later in the Olympic Games, Biles won a gold medal in the individual all-around event, becoming the first person to win
it in non-consecutive games, a gold medal on vault, and a silver medal on floor; Carey won bronze on vault; and Lee won bronze in the individual all-around and uneven bars.

Team background

Simone Biles was a part of the gold medal-winning team, dubbed the Final Five, at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where Biles won gold in the all-around.

Biles, Chiles, and Lee were all part of the Tokyo 2020 silver medal-winning team, while Carey competed in Tokyo as an individual. Lee won gold in the all-around and Carey won gold on floor exercise.

Olympic trials

The top all-around finisher at the 2024 Olympic trials, Simone Biles, was automatically named to her third Olympic team. Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Jade Carey finished second, third, and fourth place, and were named to their second Olympic team by the selection committee. Hezly Rivera was the fifth person named to the team by the selection committee after placing fifth in the all-around. Joscelyn Roberson and Leanne Wong were named as traveling alternates for the women's team. Kaliya Lincoln and Tiana Sumanasekera were named as the non-traveling alternates.

Captain and nickname

Simone Biles, the captain of the Fighting Four and the oldest member of the Golden Girls at 27 years old, was once again selected as team captain by her teammates.

The team members originally announced the name "FAFO Five" during the press conference following their victory
in the team event. Biles later announced via social media that the team name would be "Golden Girls" as the average age of the team was 22.2 the oldest of any gold-winning American team.

2024 Summer Olympics

Qualifications

The United States qualified to the team final in first place, more than five points ahead of second place Italy. Biles, Chiles, and Lee competed on all four events while Carey competed on vault and floor exercise and Rivera competed on uneven bars and balance beam. For the individual all-around, Biles, Lee, and Chiles finished first, third, and fourth respectively, with Biles and Lee qualifying to final and Chiles missing out due to two-per-country limitations. On vault, Biles, Carey, and Chiles finished first, third, and fourth respectively with Biles and Carey qualifying to the final; Chiles was once again being eliminated due to two-per-country limitations. On the uneven bars Lee qualified to the final in third place, with Biles being first reserve for the final. On balance beam Biles and Lee qualified to the final in second and fourth respectively. On floor exercise Biles and Chiles qualified first and third respectively.

Team Final

In the team final Biles and Chiles competed on all four apparatuses, Lee competed on all but vault, and Carey only competed on vault. They ended the competition with a score of 171.296, nearly six points ahead of second place Italy. This was the United States' fourth Olympic team title.

Individual all-around

Biles won the all-around final with a score of 59.131 ahead of Rebeca Andrade of Brazil. Lee placed third with a score of 56.465. Biles became the third female gymnast to win two Olympic all-around titles after Larisa Latynina (1956–1960) and Věra Čáslavská (1964–1968) and the first to do so non-consecutively. Lee became the first reigning champion since Nadia Comaneci in 1980 to return to the Olympic all-around podium.

Event finals

During the vault final Biles won gold after performing her eponymous Biles II vault (Yurchenko double pike) and a Cheng. Carey won bronze after performing a Cheng and double-twisting Yurchenko. Biles became the second woman to win two Olympic titles after Věra Čáslavská (1964–1968). During the uneven bars final Lee won bronze behind Kaylia Nemour and Qiu Qiyuan. During the balance beam final four of the eight competitors fell off of the apparatus, including both Biles and Lee. The ended up finishing fifth and six respectively. During the floor exercise final Biles went out of bounds twice and incurred 0.6 points in neutral deductions. As a results she finished in second behind Rebeca Andrade. Initially Chiles was given a score of 13.666, which put her in fifth place. Her coach Cécile Canqueteau-Landi filed an inquiry which was accepted and Chiles score was raised by a tenth, giving her a final score of 13.766 which put her in bronze medal position. The Romanian Gymnastics Federation filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which determined that the inquiry was filed four seconds past the 1 minute time limitation and therefore Chiles' score would revert back to 13.666, which put her back in fifth place. The International Olympic Committee upheld the ruling from CAS.

Post Olympics

Biles, Carey, Chiles, and Rivera participated in the Gold Over America Tour.

See also

* Women's artistic gymnastics events at the 2024 Summer Olympics
* Magnificent Seven, the U.S. 1996 Summer Olympics women's artistic gymnastics team, who won the first team all-around gold medal
* Fierce Five, the U.S. 2012 Summer Olympics women's artistic gymnastics team, who won the second team all-around gold medal
* Final Five, the U.S. 2016 Summer Olympics women's artistic gymnastics team, who won the third team all-around gold medal

References

{{Simone Biles

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Nicknamed groups of Olympic competitors
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Women's gymnastics
Women's gymnastics teams in the United States
Women's sports in the United States