Texas gymnasts secure gold and bronze at Paris Olympics – and the competition’s not over yet

How the Texas competitors did and who to look for in the new breakdancing category.

By Kristen CabreraAugust 2, 2024 3:58 pm, ,

Texas was well-represented at the men and women’s gymnastics team and all-around events, which concluded at the Paris Olympics this week.

The men took bronze, the first team medal since 2008. The women, led by Simone Biles, won team gold, followed two days later by individual all-around gold and bronze medals for Biles and Suni Lee, respectively.

Freelance journalist Dvora Meyers spoke with the Standard about the Texas gymnasts in the Olympics, pressure-fueled moments and how the GOAT was able to pull it all off – plus what’s still ahead in gymnastics and what to look for from a Texan in the new breaking competition.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: The men’s gymnastics team did something that hadn’t been done in 16 years by winning a medal. Did this defy the odds, or was this widely seen in the gymnastics world that this team could actually pull this off?

Dvora Meyers: I think that a lot of people believed that this team could pull it off, but it was a matter of whether or not they would pull it off on the day. And the competition for the bronze medal was really fierce. So, it’s quite an accomplishment, because that field is deep on the men’s side.

Tell us a little bit about Texan Asher Hong from Plano and his contribution to the team. What are his best events?

He’s noted for vault. He does like one of the most difficult vaults in the world that’s kind of insane. And every time he does it, you know, you just kind of cross your fingers and hope he lands on his feet.

But that’s how you feel when you watch anyone do that vault, to be honest – it’s so risky. And he’s really strong on rings, and he’s strong on parallel bars.

Not a Texan here, but I have to ask you about Stephen Nedoroscik, his performance on pommel horse clinching the bronze. I’m sure you’ve seen all the memes. This was a moment that seemed to have a lot of pressure built up behind it.

Yeah. I mean, it’s been such a delight to see someone that gymnastics fans and the gymnastics community has really loved for several years now get his moment to shine.

And he’s brilliant on the pommel horse. Pommel horse is an event that’s very much unlike, I think, the other events in the men’s repertoire. So you see a lot of specialists like him; they tend to do the best. Sometimes you’ll see all-arounders get a pommel horse medal, but most of the time it’s event specialists like Stephen Nedoroscik.

And he had to wait, I don’t know, like two hours, maybe even longer, to do that routine. I can’t imagine how he was feeling, the pressure mounting and mounting, especially with every one of his teammates sticking their vaults, just really hitting it out of the park.

 

Women’s gymnastics came back with a team gold. They’ve long been dominant in the sport, and especially with the return of Simone Biles. What were some of the key moments of the team competition?

It’s hard to say which are the key moments because they really just hit the ground running and were out in front from the beginning and just never let up. So there was never really any question whether or not they were going to win.

But I think it’s really special, especially for this team, because four of the members were in Tokyo. Jade Carey, who was in Tokyo, was there as individual, so this time she got to compete on the team. And the other three were on the silver medal-winning team last time around.

And the silver medal is obviously an incredible accomplishment, but because of the COVID restrictions, they didn’t really have an Olympic experience – like they didn’t get to compete in front of a full arena. So I think it was really special to watch, especially Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles, because Simone had been in Rio, so she had that first Olympic experience. But it’s really special to see the two of them get to compete in front of a really appreciative audience.

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Jordan Chiles seemed to be killing it on every event. She moved to Texas to train at Biles’ gym in Spring, as a lot of folks know. How had she changed since Tokyo, and how did that help in getting her team the gold?

Well, she is, first of all, such a delight. And no one loves an audience more than Jordan Chiles. If you haven’t watched any of her college gymnastics routines floor routines for UCLA, do yourself a favor. She really plays to the crowd. So it’s so great to get to see her in front of an Olympic audience.

She had a bit of a rough 2023: She didn’t make the world championship team, and she really seemed to reset. And she’s been talking about how she’s been calling herself “that girl,” and she really believed it. And she took any opportunity that came her way and really ran with it. It was really impressive to see her come back after a rough 2023 elite season.

Simone Biles has now made history as the most decorated U.S. gymnast and came back after stepping away during the Tokyo Olympics. How does all that happen?

She is just, I would say, a real gift that gymnastics received. You know, she’s been a driver of some recent popularity, I think, of the sport. You saw the the arena filled with celebrities. I’ve never seen so many A-list actors at a gymnastics competition in all my life. And I’ve been following it for like 30 years.

We should point out we’re not done with the Olympics just yet. What do we have to look forward to in the coming days, both in gymnastics and in breaking?

Well, in terms of gymnastics, tomorrow the apparatus finals begin, and Simone has three more medal opportunities there. She’s a favorite to win the gold on vault, though she does have some strong competition, and she’s a contender on balance beam as well, where she’s the defending world champion.

And I would say it’s a pretty safe bet that she will walk away with a gold in floor exercise. Her D score is just so much higher than the rest of the field that she would have to make some tremendous errors to not win there. So she’s now the most decorated U.S. Olympic gymnast in history, and she is going to add to that medal tally.

And in breaking, it’s making its Olympic debut. It’s very exciting. You know, you could see a little bit of breaking in gymnastics; some of the men on floor exercise have incorporated air flares. But you’re going to see some things are going to be truly astounding.

And Houston has a B-Boy in the mix for the Olympics: Jeffro. He incorporates a lot of subtlety and complexity to his dance. He’s very musical, works on the beats incredibly well. I think he’s going to be really exciting to watch.

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