PARIS — If you’re looking for an upset at the 2024 Paris Olympics, look somewhere besides the women’s gymnastics team final.
The U.S. women’s gymnastics team are all but certain to win gold Tuesday night, and it probably won’t be close.
There’s only one team that’s managed to beat the Americans at an Olympics or world championships since 2011, and that team — Russia — isn’t even in Paris. The Tokyo gold medalists are banned as punishment for their country’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Yes, the Americans have Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast her sport has ever seen, and she will do all four events in the team final. But they are hardly a one-woman show. The other three gymnasts who will compete in the team final are all gold medalists at either the Olympics or world championships.
Suni Lee won the all-around title in Tokyo. Jade Carey won the floor gold in Tokyo. Jordan Chiles was part of the team that won the 2022 world title by a whopping 3.201 points. And that was without Biles, who was taking a break from gymnastics.
So, yeah, sorry Italy, Brazil, China and everyone else. But there are two other spots on the podium up for grabs!
Here’s a look at the other medal contenders in the women’s team final.
Brazil
Brazil was a surprising fourth in qualifying, though this was with a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes.
Brazil won silver at last year’s world championships and has the best gymnast in the world not named Simone Biles in Rebeca Andrade. Andrade won the all-around world title in 2022, when Biles was taking a break from gymnastics, and was runner-up to Biles in 2023. She’s also the reigning Olympic and world champion on vault.
Even with Andrade, Brazil finished more than two points behind the U.S. women at last year’s worlds.
Italy
The European champions were second in qualifying. They’ve got two very strong all-arounders in Manila Esposito and Alice D’Amato, who went 1-2 at the European championships.
China
China is spectacular on balance beam and uneven bars, where they have reigning world champion Qiu Qiyuan. They posted the highest score on bars in qualifying, and were second to the United States on beam.
Unfortunately, they also have to vault and they simply don’t have the difficulty there. China was 11th out of the 12 teams in qualifying, with only one gymnast doing a vault with a difficulty score above 4.4. Every one of the U.S. women, by comparison, does a vault with a difficulty score of 5.0 or above.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Simone Biles, US women’s gymnastics challengers in Olympic team final
