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Simone Biles praises her teammates: 'They stepped up when I couldn't'

The gymnastics superstar expressed her pride in her "brave and talented" teammates after Team USA won silver in the women's team final following Biles' withdrawal.
/ Source: TODAY

Simone Biles celebrated her teammates on Tuesday after they won the silver medal in the Olympic team gymnastics final following her withdrawal from the team competition.

Biles shared a shot on Instagram of her and teammates Jordan Chiles, Grace McCallum and Suni Lee showing off their silver medals with pride after they finished in second behind the Russian Olympic Committee.

"OLYMPIC SILVER MEDALISTS," she wrote. "I’m SO proud of these girls right here. You girls are incredibly brave & talented! I’ll forever be inspired by your determination to not give up and to fight through adversity! They stepped up when I couldn’t. thanks for being there for me and having my back! forever love y’all."

Chiles commented on Biles' post with gratitude of her own.

"You will forever be loved," Chiles wrote. "We can’t thank you enough. You have such a huge inspiration on all of us. We wouldn’t have done it without you🥺💕 love you mo 🤞🏾❤️"

Biles made a stunning exit after one vault, leaving with a trainer and then returning to cheer on her teammates for the remainder of the final.

She told Hoda Kotb on TODAY afterward that she felt fine physically, but the enormous expectations on her entering the Olympics have had an effect.

"Emotionally, that kind of varies on the time and moment," she said. "Coming here to the Olympics and being the head star isn't an easy feat, so we're just trying to take it one day at a time and we'll see."

Biles was noncommittal when asked if she will compete in Thursday's individual all-around, where she is the defending gold medalist.

"We're going to take it day by day, and we're just going to see," she said.

Chiles, McCallum and Lee fought to the end in Biles' absence, drawing to within 0.8 of a point of ROC heading into the final leg of the competition, but ROC topped Team USA in the floor exercise for its first Olympic women's gymnastics title since 1992.

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