After Biles exit, MyKayla Skinner earns Olympic silver medal

TOKYO - She launched herself off the vault, stuck the landing and saluted, then MyKayla Skinner heard the roar from her teammates watching in the stands. One voice seemed louder than the rest — Simone Biles, rooting for Skinner in what would become a silver-medal winning performance.

"I knew she was going to be the loudest one in there tonight," Skinner said.

Skinner had always dreamed of competing at the Olympics, and described the unexpected, 11th-hour opportunity as a "one in a million" chance that she was not going to waste.

She was not supposed to be there, competing on vault in the women’s event finals Sunday.

She had the fourth-highest score during qualifications. But the rules allow each country a maximum of two athletes in the finals. Biles and Jade Carey finished first and second, pushing Skinner from the competition.

She was devastated that her Olympics — and her gymnastics career — appeared to have ended at qualification. She was preparing to get on a plane to fly home.

Skinner, 24, posted a farewell online.

"This is closing the book on my gymnastics career," she wrote. "For now I will just try to fill the hole in my heart."

But then Biles struggled at team finals Tuesday and withdrew from that competition. Biles told her coach to text Skinner and tell her to stay, just in case she couldn’t continue competing and Skinner would have to step in.

Biles was struggling with what gymnasts call the "twisties," a sudden inability to control their body while flying through the air. Skinner said she’s had them once but was able to rebound quickly. She knows other gymnasts who’ve taken weeks to recover. Biles was deciding day by day if she felt up to competing in any competitions.

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