Olympic gymnastics is for the olds now

PARIS - The most riveting moments of the women’s gymnastics competition here featured the same two athletes: Simone Biles, widely considered the best gymnast in the sport’s history, and Rebeca Andrade, a Brazilian star and Biles’s top challenger.

When Biles faltered, Andrade made a push before Biles rallied to the all-around gold. In the vault final, Biles’s difficulty propelled her to the top of the podium again. And in the finale on floor, Andrade left the Games an Olympic champion because she showcased the controlled landings that Biles lacked. Each competition was a dramatic battle between two athletes in their primes.

Biles is 27. Andrade is 25. Together they have led a wave of older athletes excelling at the sport’s highest level, each Olympic medal helping debunk the long-held belief that women’s gymnastics was a sport for teenagers.

Biles and Andrade each earned four medals in Paris, but nine other gymnasts who are at least 21 years old left with at least one. The average age of women’s gymnastics medalists at the Paris Games was 22.7, the highest mark in 60 years and the continuation of a decades-long trend of older gymnasts winning Olympic medals.

“It shows that you can continue in the sport,” said Chellsie Memmel, the technical lead on the U.S. high performance staff. “If you’re smart about your training, you don’t have to necessarily peak when you’re 16, because these women are continually learning and progressing and doing new skills, doing harder skills, than they were at 16. And that belief of what it used to be shouldn’t be there anymore.”

The average age of Olympic medalists was already falling when Romania’s Nadia Comaneci, then 14, captivated the world in 1976. She became the first gymnast to score a 10.0 at the Olympics, and her lithe frame and graceful performance became the image of perfection. Comaneci’s coaches, Bela and Martha Karolyi, defected to the United States in 1981 and, with now-decried coaching methods, eventually built an American gymnastics dynasty.

By 1992, teenagers dominated the Olympics. U.S. gymnast Shannon Miller won five medals, including the all-around silver, at 15. The average age of medalists that Olympics dipped to an all-time low: 16.6 years old.

When Comaneci competed, gymnasts only needed to turn 14 by the end of the Olympic year to be eligible for the Games. With gymnasts trending younger, officials increased the minimum age to 15 in 1981 and to 16 in 1997, where it remains today. Gradually, the gymnasts at the top of the sport started to become older, even as the age minimum stayed put.

Now the long career trajectories of gymnasts define the Games. Andrade had three major knee injuries before rivaling Biles in Paris. Biles worked back from a mental block that forced her to withdraw from nearly every event in Tokyo. Here, Biles became the fourth-oldest Olympic medalist in women’s gymnastics since the 1970s, and she has reached these heights with skills none of her peers have attempted. Biles at 27 was undeniably better than the 19-year-old version of herself who became a global star at her first Olympics in 2016.

After this year’s U.S. trials, Biles apologized to Aly Raisman, who competed at her second Olympics at 22 years old, because she had far exceeded the age that prompted her to call Raisman a “grandma.” Biles then joked it was past her bedtime. Biles hasn’t ruled out the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, when she will be 31.

The idea that gymnasts peaked between age 16 and 18 was “put into gymnasts’ minds,” said Jordan Chiles, a 23-year-old who trains alongside Biles. Now, she said, “People can see, ‘Oh, that’s not true. They’re continuing. They’re doing everything they want to do for themselves.’ I think with Simone, she’s kind of a perfect example for that.”

Biles led this U.S. team that also included Chiles, Jade Carey (24) and Sunisa Lee (21). All four competed in Tokyo three years ago. For the first time, an Olympic team featured two past Olympic women’s all-around champions. The lone newcomer, 16-year-old Hezly Rivera, was the outlier.

“They’ve all continued to improve as they’ve gotten older,” said Memmel, a 2008 Olympian who made a comeback in 2021 as a 32-year-old mother of two. “And I think it’s just a great message, too, to the younger generation that, ‘Hey, it’s okay if you didn’t quite make it this first time around. You could have another [Olympic cycle] or even another after that to go for it.’”

Some of the younger American gymnasts who were age-eligible for the Paris Games have already said they hope to compete for a spot in 2028. Dulcy Caylor, a 16-year-old who trains at the gym owned by Biles’s parents, said earlier this year that as a kid, she saw 2024 as the year for her Olympic dream. Now, she said, she knows “how much more I could do for 2028.” By then, she will be 20, still younger than most of the gymnasts on this year’s team.

Teenagers still had standout moments in Paris. The bars final starred two 17-year-olds, with Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour edging out China’s Qiu Qiyuan for gold. Manila Esposito, also 17, helped lead Italy to its first team medal in nearly a century and then won bronze on beam. But all the other individual medalists were older.

American gymnasts and coaches credit smarter training methods and an increased willingness to allow gymnasts with Olympic aspirations to also compete in college, extending some gymnasts’ careers. Another factor: An open-ended scoring system that debuted in 2006, which allows powerful gymnasts with difficult tricks rack up points. That favors athletes who have had time to develop their skills and their bodies.

Memmel isn’t sure whether the past perception that gymnasts peaked in their teens was simply wrong or the sport has evolved. It’s probably a combination of both, she said. But for now and in the future, there is no doubt: The final moment of the women’s gymnastics competition at these Games featured a podium with athletes aged 23, 25 and 27, including the two biggest stars of the sport, each better than they’ve ever been.