American gymnast Simone Biles didn’t get the perfect ending she hoped for. Biles won silver in the floor exercise finals on Monday, marking her 11th Olympic medal. Her performance included a few mistakes that led her to step out of bounds.
Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade was the first to beat Biles in a floor final at a major international event. Andrade scored 14.166, slightly ahead of Biles’ 14.133.
Jordan Chiles, Biles’ longtime friend and teammate, took home the bronze medal.
Biles, who is considered the greatest gymnast ever, didn’t perform at her usual high level during her routine, which was set to music by Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.
Despite this, Biles increased her medal count in Paris to four: gold in the team, all-around, and vault finals, and a surprising silver in her signature event.
“I can’t be more proud of how I’ve done,” Biles said. “I’m 27 years old walking away from this Games with four medals to add to my collection. Not mad about it.”
Biles now has a total of 11 Olympic medals (seven gold, two silver, two bronze), tying Czechoslovakia’s Vera Caslavska for the second-most by a female gymnast in Olympic history. She missed the chance for a fifth medal in Paris earlier on Monday when she fell during the beam final and finished fifth.
Although Biles often makes her performances look easy, it is not. She fell during her floor warm-up and had to have her left calf, which she injured in qualifying last week, re-wrapped before competing.
Her tumbling wasn’t flawless—she stepped out of bounds twice—but her routines are usually so difficult that it doesn’t matter much. This time, however, she received a 7.833 execution score with 0.6 points deducted for stepping out of bounds, which allowed Andrade to win her second Olympic gold.
Despite this, Biles, wearing a red, white, and blue leotard with thousands of crystals, completed her nine days of competition in Paris by proving her critics wrong. These critics had been harsh about her withdrawing from several events at the Tokyo Games three years ago.
