Browsing: Sports

Simone Biles, de los Estados Unidos, sonríe mientras Tang Xijing, de China, a la izquierda, abraza a su compañero Guan Chenchen después de que esta última ganara la medalla de oro en la viga de equilibrio durante la final de aparatos femeninos de gimnasia artística en los Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 2020, el 3 de agosto. 2021, en Tokio, Japón. Biles ganó la medalla de bronce. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

Simone Biles, of the United States, smiles as Tang Xijing, of China, left, embraces teammate Guan Chenchen after the latter won the gold medal on the balance beam during the artistic gymnastics women’s apparatus final at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Aug. 3, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. Biles won the bronze medal. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

Venus Jewett, back left, mother of Olympic runner Isaiah Jewett, watches her son compete in the 800-meter race and reacts as as Isaiah failed to make the finals as she joins other family and friends of Olympic athletes watching the televised action live at the Olympic Family & Friends Experience at the Loews Sapphire Falls Resort at Universal Orlando in Orlando, Fla., on July 30, 2021. (Stephen M. Dowell/AP)

Spain had won three consecutive Olympic medals, taking silvers after losing to the U.S. in the gold-medal games in 2008 and 2012, followed by a bronze in 2016 after falling to the U.S. in the semifinals. And this may be the last time that the Spanish roster has some of its longtime mainstays; Pau Gasol is 41, other top players like Marc Gasol and Rudy Fernandez are much closer to the end than the beginning, and this might have been Spain’s best chance to beat the U.S. at the Olympics.

Biles arrived on the floor about 90 minutes before the competition started, wearing a red, white and blue leotard emblazoned with nearly 5,000 crystals. If she was nervous, it hardly showed. She warmed up as if it was just another day back in the gym her family owns in the northern Houston suburbs. Twice she hopped onto the beam to do a run-through of her routine and she stuck her double-pike dismount to applause from the stands and the whir of dozens of cameras.