In the stands, national team coordinator Martha Karolyi embraced Rhonda Faehn, whom she coached in the 1980s and who is now vice president of the women’s program for USA Gymnastics. Both delivered. Douglas got lots of height on her release skills and hit her handstands, then stuck her double layout dismount to get a 15.766.
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Moving to the beam, Downie’s younger sister, 17 year-old Ellie, toppled off while Claudia Fragapane’s landing saw her marked down.
The U.S. pulled out front on their first rotation, posting a combined score of 46.866 on the vault to narrowly lead Russian Federation by 0.7 points. From the second Laurie Hernandez drilled her opening vault to Simone Biles’ boundary-pushing floor exercise to end it, the us put on an exhibition that showed how far the divide between themselves and everyone else has become.
USA gymnasts Lauren Hernandez, Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, Gabrielle Douglas, and Madison Kocian brought home the gold, in a performance that saw them maintain a lead through the four skills. Kocian was even better, scoring a 15.933 in her top event. With the win here, they became the first American gymnasts to win multiple team Olympic gold medals. The team is also Karolyi’s last and fifth Olympic squad. But only the United States performed mistake-free, a tribute to Karolyi’s meticulous, constant, consistent training.
Laurie Hernandez looks on as Gabby Douglas hugs Madison Kocian during the women’s team finals in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games at Rio Olympic Arena.
The US women’s gymnastics team has been dominant since winning Olympic gold in 2012. The Final Five honored her not only with words, but deeds.
“As we cheer on the 4’9” American powerhouse in her first Olympics, let’s take a moment to appreciate her accomplishments and badass skills.
But Rio is not done with them yet. He won the worlds in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and is the defending gold medalist (London). Preformed on the floor exercise, this skill requires a high level of “air awareness”, as Biles flips and twist through the air she has to know exactly where the ground is because she won’t see it until she lands. “But anything can happen”.
As far as individual players go, look out for USA speed merchant Carlin Isles, whose best 100m time of 10.13 seconds makes him the fastest player in rugby sevens. “This is why we’re here”.
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Perhaps these gymnasts’ moms should have stitched their names into their team jackets: We just watched a couple of them sift through some of the jackets, putting them on and taking them off, as if they were trying to find the right one.
