Hollywood was out in force to support Simone Biles and the USA women’s gymnastics team as they scored the Gold in today’s team final at the Paris Olympics.
One of the most anticipated and hyped events of the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad and shown live this morning on NBC and Peacock, the intense competition at the Bercy Arena in the City of Light’s 12th district drew a very high profile crowd.
Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban were in attendance, cheering on the American quartet. Equally passionate for the team in the arena were Spike Lee, Natalie Portman and Serena Williams. NBC’s Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie were also pumping their first in excitement from the stands as Team USA topped rivals on the balance beam, uneven bars, the vault, and the floor exercise, Biles’ best event, in the competition.
“That was fire,” Lee was seen proclaiming of Chiles’ double layout ending floor routine – which was awarded a 13.966. By the time a smiling Biles hit the floor in full flight to Taylor Swift‘s ‘…Ready For It?’ the Gold was an almost forgone conclusion.
The chant of “USA, USA” from the audience was the icing on the Olympic cake. In the end, It was USA for the Gold, Italy for the Silver and Brazil for the Bronze. As of now, Biles has won five Olympic gold medals and eight medal total – that’s the highest total of any American gymnast ever.
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Olympics greats Michael Phelps, Nadia Comaneci and Tony Estanguet, who is the head of Paris 2024 committee, were there in person too. Up on their feet for the team over and over today were Biles’ husband Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens and retired NFL Super Bowl winner Jason Kelce, plus Prince Albert II of Monaco and Bill Gates – as you can see in the photo gallery below.
Taking a fairly early lead over Italy and China, Biles, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Suni Lee never really looked back Tuesday. While Team USA’s Hezly Rivera was with her teammates today, she was not in competition. Rivara got the lowest score at the qualifier and didn’t make the finals in any individual gymnastics event.
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Tuesday’s win for the first Gold in the women’s team final since Rio 2016. At the delayed Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, which were actually held in 2021 due to the global Covid pandemic, the Women’s gymnastics team got the Silver medal. Biles withdrew from much of the Summer Games in Japan “to focus on my mental health,” as the then seven-time Gold medalist put it at the time.