DENVER — The U.S. women's gymnastics team achieved their redemption by winning the gold medal, and afterward Simone Biles compared her team to a classic television show with a double meaning.
The self-described “Redemption Tour," the moniker given to a team filled with women who wanted to return to the Games for deeply personal reasons, ended with Biles and the Americans where they have almost always been since she burst onto the scene 11 years ago: on top of the podium, the rest of the world looking up.
Eight years after winning gold in Rio with a group that called Aly Raisman grandma because she was all of 22, Biles — now 27 and married — was back again with Jade Carey (24), Chiles (23), Lee (21) and teenager Hezly Rivera at her side.
They're the oldest women's gymnastics team the U.S. has ever sent to the Olympics.
So it makes sense that Biles evoked a television show about another group of older women when praising her team.
"okay on the real though, the official team name is golden girls (because oldest olympic team)," she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
At the Paris Olympics, these women were golden. Also, "The Golden Girls" is a sitcom that aired in the 1980s starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, about older women sharing a home in Florida.
The responses on X showed approval, with more than 135,000 likes on Tuesday night, and responders calling the name "perfect" and saying Biles is the GOAT of the Golden Girls.
Biles' post came after an earlier news conference in which Raisman asked her the team's nickname and Biles jokingly gave a different response: "F.A.A.F.O" – "F*** around and find out."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
