VIDEO. Simone Biles falls off balance beam, failing to win fourth gymnastics gold medal at Paris 2024 Olympics

Simone Biles a chuté lors de l'épreuve olympique de la poutre. MAXPPP – Mike Egerton

Italy's Alice D'Amato became the Olympic champion on the balance beam Monday at the Paris Olympics, where American superstar Simone Biles failed to medal, finishing fifth after a fall.

Alice D'Amato won with a score of 14.366 points, ahead of China's Yaqin Zhou (14.100) and another Italian, Manila Esposito (14.000).

Wearing a blue and white leotard saturated with sequins, Biles waited for her score with a closed face before seeing the score of 13.100 appear on the screen, not enough to make it to the podium.

She still has a chance to win a fourth title

That wasn't the only surprise of the day since the other favorite, the Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, failed at the foot of the podium.

Three years after her Tokyo Games, disrupted by the phenomenon of "twisties", which made her lose her bearings in space, this is the first hitch in Paris for Biles. The 27-year-old American gymnast had so far made a stunning comeback by winning three gold medals, in the team event, the individual all-around event and the vault.

She still has a chance to win a fourth title in the floor exercise final, the last competition of the competition on Monday afternoon.

If she wins, she would win the eighth Olympic gold medal of her career, by one length of the record of the Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina, who won nine titles between 1956 and 1964.