SHAPIRO: OK, so spoil this for us. So when Liam McHugh narrated a clip showing a goal by 18-year-old USA soccer player Mallory Pugh by saying, “just about three months ago she was planning for her prom”, he should have asked himself: would he make the same reference if it were an 18-year-old male player? It was the largest margin of victory in an Olympic women’s team final since the Soviet Union – remember when we used to call it that?
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Dubbed the “Final Five” (because every US team needs a catchy nickname), the women were led to victory by national team coordinator Martha Karolyi. Only after Biles’ score was posted – one that served as an exclamation point on two hours of almost flawless gymnastics – did the architect of a dynasty relax. Sometimes the kids say, ‘you are never happy.’ I am happy now.
LEWIS: Well, in a word – no, not even close.
Russian Federation took the silver medal and China earned bronze. But let’s do some math here.
For teenagers Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles, their star turns in the Summer Olympics might be just beginning.
After a midnight Saturday win over Australia that took only 35 minutes, Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross square off against China’s Yuan Yue and Fan Wang at the same time Monday.
Eight points behind – Ari, this is a sport that is routinely measured in tenths of a point, in hundredths of a point. Only after Biles’ score was posted did the architect of an American dynasty relax. That’s how good the USA was tonight.
SHAPIRO: Let’s talk about one member of the team specifically – 19-year-old Simon Biles.
Given all she has accomplished, it’s hard to remember Biles is still a teenager and these are her first Olympics.
LEWIS: You know, there are no shortage of superlatives when it comes to Simone Biles.
The routine received a 15.800 and Karolyi, not given to hyperbole, said: “I think her tumbling was sky high today”.
Douglas’s reign as all around champion is also set to come to an end having failed to even qualify for a chance to defend her crown, which is widely expected to be placed on Biles’ head. New Zealand is a 12-time world series champion and one of the top contenders for the first rugby medals awarded at an Olympics in 92 years.
Although the US had already sewn up team gold by the time Biles saluted the floor exercise judges during her final routine, winning is not enough for Karolyi and never has been. Other athletes from other countries were watching her compete, were standing up, clapping and cheering because that’s how well she did tonight.
The Americans stand to collect more medals this week.
LEWIS: Well, the all-around competition – the individual all-around competition is on Thursday.
“We’ve been pretty dominant the last couple of years”, said Aly Raisman, captain in London and again in Rio.
She won’t have the team behind her in the upcoming individual finals. Her run-up on the vault evokes images of some of the world’s greatest sprinters, her jumps and flips are daring and precise, her poise on the beam and floor perhaps unseen since the likes of Nadia Comaneci at the 1976 Games in Montreal.
Biles won’t be alone in the event finals.
And, before she performed on the balance beam, she went through one of her small routines that proves how money she really is.
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In fitting fashion, she was the last gymnast of the evening to perform, her score of 15.800 clinching the gold to the roars of a crowd that was made up of mostly Brazilian and American supporters. The U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team scored the gold during the all-around competition on Tuesday, August 9.
