Simone Biles Ties Olympic Record With Bronze Medal On Balance Beam In Tokyo

Simone Biles’ tumultuous journey throughout the Tokyo Olympics ended with a history-making performance. Biles won the bronze medal in Tuesday’s balance beam final, tying the all-time record for American gymnastics with seven total medals in her illustrious Olympic career.

It marked the first time in a week that Biles competed in Tokyo, where she pulled out of the team finals citing mental health issues. Suffering with the “twisties,” Biles skipped all three individual events for which she won the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Games.

"It wasn't easy pulling out of all those competitions," Biles said, via ESPN. "People just thought it was easy, but I physically and mentally was not in the right head space, and I didn't want to jeopardize my health and my safety because at the end of the day, it's not worth it.

"My mental and physical health is above all medals that I could ever win. So to be clear, to do beam, which I didn't think I was going to be, just meant the world to be back out there. And I wasn't expecting to walk away with the medal. I was just going out there doing this for me."

Biles had to change her routine from the qualifiers, but she still managed to finish in third place among eight participants with a score of 14.000. China’s Guan Chenchen took home the gold on the balance beam with a 14.633. A 14.233 gave Tang Xijing of China the silver medal.

U.S. gymnast Sunisa Lee came in fifth place. Lee won the gold medal for the women’s all-around in Biles' absence last week.

Biles also won the bronze medal on the balance beam in 2016. With USA Gymnastics winning silver in this year’s team final, Biles has seven career medals to match the record that was set by Shannon Miller in 1996.

Biles has won 15 individual world championships.