USA!
Houston's Simone Biles wins historic 2nd Olympic all-around gymnastics title
Aug 1, 2024, 3:36 pm
USA!
Simone Biles remains peerless. Even when she's not quite perfect.
The American gymnastics star edged Brazil's Rebeca Andrade during a tense Olympic all-around final on Thursday, August 1. Biles' total of 59.131 was just over a point ahead of Andrade at 57.932, one of the closest calls Biles has ever endured at a major international event.
Sunisa Lee, the Tokyo Olympics champion, earned bronze despite spending much of the last 15 months dealing with multiple kidney diseases that left her return to the Games very much in doubt.
Still, the meet ended the way all the ones Biles has started and finished over the last 11 years have ended: with hugs and gold on the way.
And a silver goat chain — along with a gold medal — around the Greatest of All Time's neck.
“It is crazy that I am in the conversation of ‘Greatest of all athletes’ because I just still think, ‘I’m Simone Biles from Spring, Texas who loves to flip,'” she said.
The margin was the smallest in a major international event since Biles captured the third of her record six world championships in 2015.
She was a teenager then. She's an icon now.
The 27-year-old who is redefining what a gymnast can do — and just as notably, for how long she can do it — became the third woman to become a two-time Olympic champion, joining Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union in 1956 and 1960 and Vera Caslavska of Czechoslovakia in 1964 and 1968. She is the first U.S. gymnast in history to win two all-around gold medals.
Biles also is the oldest woman to claim the biggest title in her sport since then 30-year-old Maria Gorokhovskaya of the Soviet Union won the first-ever Olympic all-around in Melbourne in 1952.
Yet the sixth gold and ninth overall medal — the same as Romanian great Nadia Comaneci, who was among the star-studded crowd that included the U.S. men's basketball team — of Biles' unparalleled career did not come as easy as so many that came before.
She misjudged a transition on uneven bars, the weakest of her four events, letting go of the upper bar too soon and forcing her to reach for a larger-than-expect gap.
While she didn't fall — Biles muscled her way back into the routine — it blunted her momentum and led to major deductions that left her trailing Andrade through two rotations.
The deficit didn't last.
Biles responded with a largely wobble-free 14.566 on the balance beam, the highest of the night among the 24 finalists, while Andrade was forced to do a major balance check during her slightly easier set that dropped her down to second heading into floor exercise, Biles' signature event.
Andrade, the silver medalist behind Lee in 2021, needed the best floor set of her life to catch Biles. It didn't quite happen. Andrade stepped out of bounds at one point, a minor problem but enough to create plenty of wiggle room for the 25-year-old who has rarely needed it over the years.
Biles incorporated music from pop icons Taylor Swift and Beyonce into her current routine, a 75-second set that began with the opening bars of Swift's hit “Ready For It" and featured the hardest tumbling ever done by a woman in the history of the sport.
When she was done — sealing gold that served as a redemption of sorts three years after pulling out of multiple finals in Tokyo to focus on her mental health — Biles sprinted to hug Lee just off the podium and blew kisses to the cameras that have become fixtures wherever she goes under the Olympic rings.
After the final score was announced, Biles and Lee — both Olympic champions — bolted onto the floor, waving an American flag. Lee, the Tokyo winner with Biles sidelined, is the first to win gold in all-around one Games then earn another medal in the next since Comaneci in 1976 and '80.
“I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it because I didn’t think that I could," Lee said.
While there may be more medals on the way — Biles is in three event finals later in the Games — the all-around puts her into the conversation as perhaps the greatest American Olympian ever.
Biles is no longer the prodigy who triumphed in Rio de Janeiro eight years ago.
She's married and a vocal advocate for survivors of sexual abuse and the importance of proper mental health. She openly volunteered after the Americans won gold in the team final on Tuesday that she met with her personal therapist that morning to help get her in the right mindset.
Biles relied on the internal work she's done over the years after that rocky bars routine. She sat with her legs crossed on a chair in her blue sequined leotard and closed her eyes, immune to the cameras that followed her every move.
When she opened them, she was ready to move on.
It's what she does. She has said repeatedly over the last three years that what happened in Tokyo is a part of her past, not a part of her present, and if critics have a problem with it, that's their issue, not hers.
She's moved on to bigger things. Like setting a standard that may never be reached.
In her sport. And maybe all others, too.
The woeful state of the Astros' farm system has made it very expensive to continue maintaining a good team, prohibitively so (in part self-imposed) from having a great team. Even if they re-sign Alex Bregman, trading Framber Valdez and/or Kyle Tucker for prospects could snap the Astros' run of eight straight postseason appearances. But if they KNOW that no way do they intend to offer Framber five years 130 million dollars, Tucker 7/225 or whatever their free agent markets might be after next season, keeping them for 2025 but getting nothing but 2026 compensatory draft picks for them could do multi-year damage to the franchise.
Preliminary Kyle Tucker trade talks between the Astros and Cubs involve both Seiya Suzuki and Isaac Paredes, sources tell @Ken_Rosenthal and me - https://t.co/kIRATDQpEn
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) December 11, 2024
The time is here for the Astros to be aggressively shopping both. It doesn't make trading them obligatory, but even though many purported top prospects amount to little or nothing (look up what the Astros traded to Detroit for Justin Verlander, to Pittsburgh for Gerrit Cole, to Arizona for Zack Greinke) if strong packages are offered the Astros need to act if unwilling (reasonably or not) to pay Valdez/Tucker.
Last offseason the Milwaukee Brewers traded pitching ace Corbin Burnes one season ahead of his free agency and then again won the National League Central, the San Diego Padres dealt Juan Soto and wound up much improved and a playoff team after missing the 2023 postseason. But nailing the trades is critical. The Brewers got their everyday rookie third baseman Joey Ortiz and two other prospects. The Padres got quality starter Michael King, catcher Kyle Hagashioka, and three prospects.
Back to Bregman
Meanwhile, decision time approaches for Alex Bregman. He, via agent Scott Boras, wants 200-plus million dollars. Don't we all. If he can land that from somebody, congratulations. The Astros' six-year 156 million dollar contract offer is more than fair. That's 26 million dollars per season and would take Bregman within a few months of his 37th birthday. If rounding up to 160 mil gets it done, ok I guess. Going to 200 would be silly.
While Bregman hasn't been a superstar (or even an All-Star) since 2019, he's still a very good player. That includes his 2024 season which showed decline offensively. Not falling off a cliff decline other than his walk rate plunging about 45 percent, but decline. If Bregman remains the exact player he was this season, six-156 is pricey but not crazy in the current marketplace. But how likely is Bregman to not drop off further in his mid-30s? As noted before, the storyline is bogus that Bregman has been a postseason monster. Over seven League Championship Series and four World Series Bregman has a .196 batting average.
The Astros already should be sweating some over Jose Altuve having shown marked decline this season, before his five year 125 million dollar extension covering 2025-2029 even starts. Altuve was still very good offensively though well down from 2022 and 2023 (defensively his data are now awful), but as he approaches turning 35 years old in May some concern is warranted when locked into paying a guy until he's nearly 39 1/2.
Jim Crane is right in noting that long contracts paying guys huge money in their later years generally go poorly for the clubs.
Bang for your buck
Cleveland third baseman Jose Ramirez is heading into the second year of a five-year, $124 million extension. That's 24.8 million dollars per season. Jose Ramirez is a clearly better player than Alex Bregman. Ramirez has been the better player for five consecutive seasons, and only in 2023 was it even close. It should be noted that Ramirez signed his extension in April of 2022. He is about a year and a half older than Bregman so the Guardians are paying their superstar through his age 36 season.
Bregman benefits from playing his home games at soon-to be named Daikin Park. Bregman hit 26 home runs this year. Using ball-tracking data, if he had played all his games in Houston, Bregman would have hit 31 homers. Had all his swings been taken at Yankee Stadium, the "Breggy Bomb" count would have been 25. In Cleveland, just 18. Ramirez hit 41 dingers. If all his games were home games 40 would have cleared the fences, if all had been at Minute Maid Park 47 would have been gone.
Matt Chapman recently signed a six-year 151 million dollar deal to stay with the San Francisco Giants. That's 25.166 million per season. Chapman was clearly a better player than Bregman this year. But it's the only season of Chapman's career that is the case. Chapman is 11 months older than Bregman, so his lush deal with the Giants carries through his age 37 season.
The Giants having overpaid Chapman doesn't obligate the Astros to do the same with Bregman. So, if you're the Astros do you accept overpaying Bregman? They would almost certainly be worse without him in 2025, but what about beyond? Again, having not one elite prospect in their minor league system boxes them in. Still, until/unless the Seattle Mariners upgrade their offense, the Astros cling to American League West favorites status. On the other hand, WITH Bregman, Tucker, and Valdez the Astros are no postseason lock.
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