PARIS, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The United States' star gymnast Simone Biles closed out her Paris 2024 campaign with a silver medal in the women's floor exercise on Monday, as Italy's Alice D'Amato made history by winning the country's first-ever Olympic gold medal on the balance beam.
Biles, the six-time world champion, finished 0.033 points behind Brazil's Rebeca Andrade, who delivered a clean program to score a leading 14.166 points.
Biles landed two tumbling passes out of bounds and incurred a 0.6-point deduction. Her difficulty level of 6.9, one point ahead of Andrade's, could not make up for her lower execution.
"It's been up and down emotions," said Biles, who has gathered four medals in Paris, three of them gold.
"I couldn't be more proud of my performance that I put on. I'm not mad about how I performed. It's a lot of work. It's paid off. So I'm super excited to be able to compete with some of the best in the world. I'm really happy for Rebeca [Andrade]. She deserved it."
Her compatriot Jordan Chiles got the bronze with 13.766 after her team's inquiry regarding her difficulty value was granted by the judges, gaining her an extra 0.1 point. This was her first individual Olympic medal.
The United States now tops the standing in artistic gymnastics with ten medals including three golds, followed by China with nine - two of them golds. Japan won three golds and four medals overall.
D'Amato scored a surprise victory, outperforming Biles on the balance beam for Italy's first gold medal in the event.
D'Amato posted 14.366 points, 0.266 ahead of China's Zhou Yaqin who took silver. Bronze went to Manila Esposito, also from Italy, who finished with 14.000.
"I think it's normal that you get nervous when you first step onto the beam," said Zhou. "My legs were shaking a bit. But the important thing was to get in the moment, to adjust my mindset to be calm. I think that got me to the silver medal today."
Biles, the four-time world champion, fell off the apparatus to place fifth. World bronze medalist Andrade finished fourth.
Shinnosuke Oka of Japan captured the gold medal in the men's horizontal bar, two hours after his bronze medal in the parallel bars.
The newly-crowned Olympic all-around champion scored 14.533 points, the same as Angel Barajas of Colombia, who settled for silver with a slightly lower execution score.
China's Zhang Boheng, the all-around silver medalist, shared the bronze with Tang Chia-Hung of Chinese Taipei, with both posting 13.966. Zhang's teammate Su Weide delivered a clean routine but lurched forward upon landing to place fifth.
Defending champion Hashimoto Daiki of Japan failed to qualify for the final after a shaky landing.
