Biles and Team USA combine guts and glamour to take the lead in Olympic gymnastics qualifying events

PARIS (AP) — Simone Biles and the rest of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team took to the floor of the Bercy Arena on Sunday in leotards adorned with thousands of crystals, the kind designed to draw as much attention as possible.

Don’t confuse all that glamour – both on the floor and in the stands, where Tom Cruise and Ariana Grande, among others, watched the spectacle – with a lack of courage.

The oldest team the Americans have ever brought to the Games has been through a lot over the years, from health issues to personal losses. Those experiences have prepared them for whatever comes, Biles perhaps most of all.

So when the most decorated gymnast of all time felt an injury during her floor exercise warmup on Sunday, she didn’t panic. And neither did her teammates.

Biles retreated briefly to the back so coach Laurent Landi could mummify her left leg, then returned to help get the team going, which now looks as good as promised.

With Biles — calf and all — posting the highest scores on vault and floor exercise and reigning Olympic champion Sunisa Lee looking perhaps as good as she ever has on the uneven bars, the U.S. totaled 172.296, which didn’t dampen expectations that Tuesday night’s team final would be more of a crowning achievement for a team that called this trip to the Games part of its “Redemption Era.”

“They’re happy and relieved,” U.S. coach Cecile Landi said. “Day one, now on to team finals, all-around finals, hopefully a couple of event finals.”

The score made it seem like everything was normal. That wasn’t the case for Biles, who Landi said had a calf problem that first surfaced a few weeks ago. Biles thought she had it under control until she warmed up with floor exercises.

After a few anxious moments, Biles was there, performing a new floor routine that had a level of difficulty that no other gymnast in the world could approach.

The same was true on vault, where she pushed her signature Yurchenko double-hook jump a little too far, proving that her calf was good enough to generate the speed needed to execute perhaps the most breathtaking skill in the sport.

“What she was able to do, even though it looked like she had pain or something in her lower leg, is remarkable,” said Chellsie Memmel, co-director of the U.S. women’s program.

Yet it wasn’t just Biles — who is expected to be available for the remainder of the competition and who was feeling well enough later Sunday to post a video of herself lip-synching a rap song to her social media channels — who helped the U.S. open up more than five points ahead of Italy and China in three of the five subdivisions.

Lee, who has struggled with multiple kidney problems for much of the past 18 months that have caused her to gain a lot of weight and limit her training, looked as sharp as she did three years ago in Tokyo on the bars – her signature event – and finished second to Biles in the all-around.

Chiles, a silver medalist in 2021, erased the memory of a sometimes difficult performance in Japan by finishing third behind her teammates in early qualifying. The 23-year-old will miss the all-around final due to rules limiting countries to two athletes per competition, though she is likely to advance to the floor exercise final and is eager to replicate the team gold that Russia claimed in Tokyo.

2020 Olympic floor champion Jade Carey likely secured a spot in the vault final while battling an illness that may have contributed to multiple floor errors, preventing her from defending her gold medal.

Hezly Rivera, by far the youngest member of Team USA at 16, was visibly nervous on the beam and uneven bars during her first appearance at the Games.

Teams compete in qualifications with four athletes per event, with each team dropping its lowest score. That changes in the three-up, three-count final.

With Russia out of the running due to the war in Ukraine, the toughest competition will likely come from Brazil, who will compete later on Sunday. The Brazilians are led by 2022 world champion Rebeca Andrade, perhaps the best gymnast in the world not named Biles for the past three years.

Italy and China were solid, especially China’s Qui Qiyuan. The 17-year-old posted an eye-popping 15.066 on the uneven bars, likely making her the closest challenger to Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour, whose 15.600 was the day’s best on an event outside of Biles’ 15.8 on vault.