Gymnastics star irritated

“Strange final”: Biles grumbles about the audience

Simone Biles felt disturbed by the audience.(Bild: AFP/APA/Gabriel BOUYS)

Simone Biles was denied gold medal number eight on the balance beam; the US American "only" finished in fifth place on Monday. One of the reasons she gave was the atmosphere in the Bercy Arena in Paris.

Biles had no problem with the volume - quite the opposite. However, the noise from the fans was very irritating on Monday. "Balance beam is always the most stressful. But otherwise we have background music or noise, in whatever form. And to be honest, we find it easier in an environment with noise because it feels more like training," explained the 27-year-old.

Simone Biles(Bild: AP)

"No one was happy with it"
This time, however, cell phone ringtones and camera clicks constantly threw her off her game. "You try to stay focused and suddenly people start cheering. And so the 'Shhh' gets louder. But actually you should give them a 'shhh' because that's even louder ... I don't know, it was really weird. We asked several times if we could have music, or some background noise. I'm not quite sure what happened there, but yeah, we weren't that happy. None of us were happy with it. It was a weird balance beam final," Biles continued.

At least the day still had a somewhat conciliatory ending for the US superstar with the silver medal in the floor exercise - even if it wasn't quite enough for the big triumph ...