PARIS — As Brazilian fans shook their flags and chanted as if they were at a soccer game, chests puffing as the name of their star gymnast, Rebecca Andrade, flashed atop the all-around standing, the public address announcer asked, “Are you enjoying it Paris?”
Simone Biles decidedly was not. She looked, in fact, like she could spit nails.
A disastrous uneven bars routine — or at least disastrous by her impeccable standards — slotted Biles in a very unfamiliar position after two rotations in the Olympic all-around competition: the one where she’s not ahead. Trailing both Andrade and Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour, Biles got in line to lead her group to its next rotation, the balance beam.