OLYMPIC GAMES | GYMNASTICS
Biles makes “weird and awkward” Paris 2024 complaint about Android phones
The 27-year-old American closed out her time at Paris 2024 with four medals, but she complained about the strange circumstances during her final event.
Simone Biles complained about the atmosphere at the balance beam as she won silver in her final event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, saying the silence was “weird”, despite having requested music “several times”.
The 27-year-old lost her footing at the final stage of her balance beam routine, costing her the gold which went to Italy’s Alice D’Amato, who scored 14.366 compared to Biles’ 13.100. “I can’t be more proud of how I’ve done”, Biles said.
“I’m 27-years-old walking away from this games with four medals to add to my collection. Not mad about it. I’ve accomplished way [more than I thought I would]. A couple of years ago, I didn’t think I’d be back here.”
‘I heard some of the Android ringtones going off '
However, Biles also mentioned the strange atmosphere at the event, citing the crowd silence and shushing as a contributing factor to the stress of the day.
“The most stressful apparatus is always the balance beam. It was really weird and awkward. We’ve asked several times if we can have some music or some background noise. I’m not really sure what happened there, but, yeah, not our favorite. None of us liked it”, she told AP.
“Honestly, we do better in environments when there’s noise going on because it feels most like practice. Today, I heard some of the Android ringtones going off and camera flickers or whatever that was… You’re trying to stay in your zone. Then people start cheering and then the shushing gets louder...”
Brilliant Biles:
“We were just talking about how annoying it was to be shushed,” her partner Suni Lee added on the subject of the silence, “the pressure was definitely on. I don’t know if you could tell, but a lot of people were definitely feeling it. I think it was the crowd but also just knowing that we’re so close to being done and just adding that extra stress of wanting to end it off the right way.”
“Simone and I were like, ‘Why are they just shutting up? Like they’re just trying to stop us from getting excited. I don’t know why they’re making us shut up in the middle of my routine. We were just talking about how awkward it was to be shushed. We were both really upset,” Lee said.