Dear Gossips,   

It was a long weekend in Canada. I golfed once and then spent the rest of the time barely moving from the couch because of the Olympics. Because right now, the athletes are the celebrities. And there is no bigger celebrity at these Games than Simone Biles and Team USA gymnastics. 

 

NBC’s coverage of the team gymnastics final last week became “one of the network’s top weekday daytime events in Olympic history”. Which is interesting because just before the Olympics started, there was a poll conducted in America measuring American interest in the Games. And apparently, according to the poll, Americans were less interested in the Olympics than they were the decade before, indicating – at the time – that ratings would be low and that people were only interested in Simone. 

Well. 

I guess just like in politics, polls can be wrong where the Olympics are concerned. But also, credit to the athletes for so much of the Olympic enthusiasm, for delivering on the drama and the spectacle. Like Noah Lyles and Kishane Thompson on Sunday at the 100m final and that close finish which delivered big numbers for NBC and Peacock across platforms. 

 

Still, Simone is Queen. Even when she comes in second, which is what happened yesterday in the floor exercise final when she made errors in her routine and Rebeca Andrade met the moment with the performance of the day. And what I love about this is that it’s not like Simone wasn’t competitive – she wanted to win, she wanted another gold, she was COMPETING. Because competition between women is not inherently bad. It’s HOW you compete that makes the difference. 

 

Rebeca, Simone, and Jordan Chiles competed respectfully and their efforts resulted in an all-Black podium for the first time in gymnastics history with a now iconic photo. Everyone is a winner here. 

 

I also appreciate that in the press conference afterwards, when asked about bowing to Rebeca on the podium, Simone credited Jordan with the idea. 

A true champion, through and through. 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey