Italian gymnast Alice D’Amato won the balance beam gold medal today at the 2024 Paris Olympics, an event in which North American Simone Biles, who was seeking her fourth gold in the French capital, was fifth.
Alysa D’Amato, who won her first Olympic gold, scored 14,366 points to share the podium with China’s Zhou Yaqing (14,100) and her compatriot Manila Esposito (14,000), who took the silver and bronze medals respectively.
A trip to the ground after her second tumbling sequence knocked Simone Biles out of medal contention, dropping her to fifth place with 13.100 points, behind another favorite, Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, who was fourth with 13.933.
Simone Biles, who won gold in the three finals she competed in in Paris, can also add to her achievements as she will compete in the floor exercise final, where she is the world champion and Olympic champion at Rio 2016.
By finishing fifth, the Texan, who has seven gold medals, missed out on joining Russian gymnast Larisa Latynina and swimmer Katie Ledecky, her compatriot, as the most decorated women ever to compete in the Olympics, with nine gold medals.