Jordan Chiles And Simone Biles Bow Down To Floor Champion Rebeca Andrade On Podium

Getty Image / Photo By Elsa

Monday’s Floor Exercise Final at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris was supposed to be a coronation of Simone Biles in what may have been the last routine of her career. Instead, it turned into a surprise win by Brazilian star Rebeca Andrade.

Andrade took advantage of an off day for Simone Biles beat out Biles by less than a tenth of a point, while Jordan Chiles took the bronze after an inquiry gave her an extra tenth of a point. But, the real fun occurred after the meet was over.

While on the podium, Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles paid big-time respect to Rebeca Andrade, bowing down to her on the podium.

Take a look at what happened.

Here’s what Simone Biles had to say about the situation.

Make no mistake, though. This result was a huge upset. Biles had scored as 15.066 on Floor Exercise this meet, a huge advantage over the rest of the field. But. 0.6 worth of out-of-bounds penalties helped bring her score down to a 14.133, behind Andrade’s 14.166.

It was a well-deserved gold for Andrade, who would’ve been the worldwide gymnastics star of these Olympics had Biles not returned to the sport. The 2022 World All-Around Champion has pushed through two ACL tears to become arguably the best challenge to Simone Biles that anyone has been in her eleven-year reign. She even led Simone Biles halfway through the All-Around Final on Thursday before Simone pulled way on Beam and Floor.

But, she finally got her Olympic gold in Paris, adding that to the Vault gold she earned in Tokyo after Simone Biles pulled out.

Clearly, the two rivals respect each other, and today’s gesture proves just that.