Sportsmanship drama erupts over teammate’s icy act: ‘Camera is on’
A gold-medal winner has been accused of ugly sportsmanship towards her own teammate in a moment caught by TV cameras.
Olympics
Don't miss out on the headlines from Olympics. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A picture paints a thousand words, but this one was misleading.
There have been claims of poor sportsmanship within the American women’s gymnastics team, despite their winning performance in the team final.
Simone Biles led the team from the front as she picked up her fifth gold medal.
The unit of Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Sunisa Lee led wire-to-wire in reclaiming gold ahead of Italy, with Brazil taking a historic bronze.
Despite the obvious tight-knit nature of the squad, accusations were made about a moment of poor sportsmanship by Chiles after she missed out on a spot in the women’s all round singles final in extraordinary, cruel circumstances.
Under the most brutal of rules where the preliminary rounds decide which athletes will compete in the women’s all round singles final, Chiles was the fourth best qualifier — but missed out simply because she’s American.
Competition rules allow a maximum of two competitors per nation — and she had to watch on as teammates Biles and Lee finished as the top two ranked competitors.
The bomb was dropped on Chiles after the final uneven bars event when the judges awarded Lee a score that was enough to put her ahead of Chiles.
It was like someone had suddenly died in the US camp as Chiles looked on without congratulating her opponent. Carey and Biles briefly stood back before Biles showed her class and started hugging her teammates.
The lack of warmth between Lee and Chiles led some to believe Chiles showed poor sportsmanship by failing to congratulate her teammate right when she’d had her heart ripped out of her chest. An icy “high-ten” and hug suggested to some that Chiles’ behaviour wasn’t good enough.
“Suni Lee deserved a better embrace from Jordan Chiles after edging Chiles for All-Around individuals,” veteran American sport reporter Josina Anderson wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“I understand it’s a tough pill to swallow after putting on dynamic performances herself. I also understand that sometimes all of us need more time to process before putting on a face and acknowledging present circumstances.
“Still the camera is on, and she has to maintain her usual grace and well-known charisma wherever her results land in the standings.”
Content website LadBible also ran with the story - but it’s hard to argue there’s real beef here.
Chiles and Lee were spotted celebrating together moments later and have shared TikTok clips of them showing off their gold medals.
As soon as their win was made official the team were overheard on the TV broadcast immediately planning their next TikTok clips.
Biles, 27, was overheard telling her teammate that she wanted to do “chomping on the gold medals” as she moved her hand to mimic putting the medal in her mouth.
Lee, 21, enthusiastically shot back, “OK! And I want to do the one that says, ‘Imagine what we would do if we didn’t win’.”
Sure enough, both of their ideas made it to TikTok.
Biles posted a video of herself with teammates Lee, Chiles and Hezly Rivera as they pretended to eat their gold medals to a trending crunching sound.
Meanwhile, Lee posted a video of the foursome lip-syncing to the audio, “Everybody want to know what I would do if I didn’t win. I guess we’ll never know”.
During the second line, they held their gold medals up to the camera proudly.
Biles revealed earlier it was a late-night “pow-wow” with her teammates in the Olympic village helped clear the way to women’s gymnastics gold on Tuesday.
“We were all full of nerves and not communicating,” Biles told reporters.
“So we had a pow-wow in one of our rooms last night to chat about how the Olympics were going, that kind of thing.”
She added: “We were trying to give support and let each other know we can lean on one another.”
“It was really needed,” chipped in Chiles.
Sunisa Lee agreed, telling the press conference after their emphatic win: “It helped me have a better understanding, it helped me a lot.”
Lee and the rest of the American team evidently have enormous affection, admiration and respect for Biles, who led them to gold.
“I’m there for them if they need help from me,” said the 27-year-old Biles, when asked about her role model status.
It was Biles’ fifth Olympic gold medal overall, but extra special after her difficult Tokyo Games in 2021.
“I think I speak for everyone when I say that we’re all so proud and just so happy for Simone. I went to her and said, ‘You did it’,” said the Tokyo all-around champion Lee.
Biles and Lee will be in action again on Friday morning (AEST) in the women’s all-around final.
It seems Chiles will be cheering them on.
— with AFP
Originally published as Sportsmanship drama erupts over teammate’s icy act: ‘Camera is on’
Athlete stripped of gold over banned flag
An Paralympic athlete has been sensationally stripped of his gold medal after he unfurled a banned flag during his celebrations.
Paralympics’ spectacular end shows Brisbane what’s possible
Australia’s Paralympians have been partying like there’s no tomorrow after the curtain came down on a spectacular Paris Games that have given a rude wake-up call to Brisbane’s 2032 organisers.