It’s the first-ever four-way tie at worlds.
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Saturday’s slate was among the most exciting and unpredictable groups of events at the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships thus far, but the action is far from over.
Organizers had gold medals for all four gymnasts.
“I had dreamed of this moment but never felt I would get emotional”, Whitlock said.
Reigning Olympic all-around champion Gabby Douglas just missed out on the podium, as she finished fifth with a score 15.133, but the Americans were still in a celebratory mood due to the 18-year-old Kocian’s performance.
The win cemented Kocian as one of the favorites to make the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team. She chose the latter. “The medal now definitely lights extra fire in me to keep going”.
Nichols, at 18 years old, would be the youngest member of that team.
Earlier Saturday, three-time World all-around champion Biles earned her third straight Worlds medal on vault, a bronze. 125 short of Russian Maria Paseka’s winning score. North Korea’s Hong Un-Jong took silver.
Scores in gymnastics are comprised of two elements, one based on the difficulty of your routine and the other on how well you do it. Fan’s set was the toughest, even though her coach always seemed to be within arm’s reach in case of disaster. She plans to correct that for Rio. Biles is working on a harder second vault, but it wasn’t ready for the meet.
The unprecedented result left US national team coordinator Martha Karolyi speechless, saying it’s the first time in 50 years in the sport she can remember having the top of the podium so crowded.
Biles will get a chance to add to her haul during the balance beam and women’s floor exercise finals on Sunday.
American men Alex Naddour finished seven in the pommel horse.
Perhaps nobody had a better day than Great Britain’s Max Whitlock on Saturday. His dizzying series of flips are twist are unmatched even by superstar teammate Kohei Uchimura, the six-time world all-around champion.
Kocian scored a 15.366, as did Russia’s Viktoria Komova and Daria Spiridonova, and China’s Fan Yilin.
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NBC and NBC Sports Live Extra will air World Championships coverage Saturday from 2:30-4 p.m. ET and Sunday from 12-1:30 p.m. ET, with Al Trautwig and Olympic champions Tim Daggett and Nastia Liukin.
