Kocian, who made the team based on her expertise in the uneven bars, made her coaches look smart. Biles scored 62.366 to win by more than 1.7 points. World bronze-medallists gymnastics-tumble-leaves-downie-dizzy-but-britain-roar-back-5724/”>Great Britain pipped Russian Federation to a medal, but led by Claudia Fragapane, could the Brits shock the world? But only two athletes per country can compete in each final, which means Douglas will have to relinquish her position atop the all-around throne and cheer on her teammates.
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“I wanted to qualify into the event finals if I did my very best and today I did that”.
“It’s never 100 percent ideal but I think we showed that our gymnastics is of the highest level”, Karolyi said. “Now it’s just about consistency”.
Simone Biles performers her floor routine during the qualification round.
Though they may not have coined a nickname yet such as the 2012’s “Fierce Five”, the 2016 US women’s gymnastics team took the floor yesterday for the preliminary round and showed the world that they, too, are incredibly fierce.
“The Olympics are no different, that’s what I’ve been telling them”, said national team coordinator Martha Karolyi, comparing this competition to the world championships, which the us women have won the last three years running. Biles was so far ahead going into the final event, the beam, she could have fallen, stopped to smoke a cigarette, yell at the judges and then do a crossword puzzle, and she would have won easily. Meanwhile, Madeline Kocian qualified first for the uneven bars with 15.866.
If the world of boxing has Muhammad Ali, probably the best female gymnast the world has ever known, not only in this generation but in the entire history, is Simon Biles of the Team USA. Same thing we did in podium training.
“Just being named to the team, I’m just so honored and really grateful”, Douglas said. “I have great confidence in what I do and I’m really just competing against myself out there”. It was a stark improvement from the Olympic trials where Douglas fell off the beam not once, but twice, leaving Karolyi to defend the decision to put her on the team. Raisman and Laurie Hernandez finished second in floor and beam, respectively.
She was aiming to become only the third woman to successfully defend the Olympic all-around title. “You nearly feel confident that you’re the next one that you can do it because once the first person goes, they kind of set a rhythm”. It’s a nice place to be because do you don’t have to snap anybody out of a bad place.
“We need to fight”, said Mustafina, the 2010 world champion.
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“No matter who doubts you, always just go for it and always push yourself and don’t listen to negativity, don’t listen to that because they shouldn’t determine your talent”.
