She took a two-year break after the London Games and then returned, motivated by missing a 2012 Olympic all-around medal on a tiebreaker.
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“The thing that still lingers in my head is that I nearly got that all-around medal”, Aly shared in a recent video interview.
Biles took gold ahead of USA teammate Aly Raisman and Russia’s Aliya Mustafina after finishing off with a dazzling floor routine.
Lochte’s odd hair aside, here’s how good he is: He’s gunning for his 13th medal on Thursday, which would make him the most decorated swimmer in Olympic history not named Phelps.
She was ready for the Olympic moment everyone had been expecting from her for three years.
Biles, who many call the best gymnast of all time, was ebullient about her team mate’s accomplishment. It was sweet revenge for the three-time Olympic medalist as she tied Mustafina for the third-highest score in the all-around.
The gold medal hanging around her neck says it all.
“Every emotion just hit me at once”, Biles said.
Her coach said he believes Van Acker contracted a severe intestinal infection while training in Rio in July that sapped her energy.
One that she does better than anyone else. It is the second gold medal that she obtained in Rio, after winning the gymnastics team all-around competition on August 9. “I’m just Simone Biles, but it’s wonderful to be recognized for all of this success for myself and for team United States of America”, she added.
Karolyi and Boorman agreed in separate interviews that Biles’ improvement started showing in about one year.
The girl adopted along with her younger sister by their grandparents as toddlers and discovered by coach Aimee Boorman’s mother during a field trip to the gym is a wonder, even if it always didn’t seem that way.
“I was nervous a little bit for her today just to come out and do it and make it yours”, Boorman said. She is favored in all three.
But she smiled instead.
When Biles started, she was out of control.
“I wouldn’t call fifth in the world a failure”, she said. Raisman hugged her gently as they awaited the final score – a mere formality – and tears appeared around Biles’ glittery red, white and blue eyeliner when the vision she once wrote in a scrapbook became a reality.
“I was more proud for Aly getting silver than me gold”, Biles said.
“No one goes into this thinking they can beat Simone”. “It has to be you that wants to come back”.
An athlete who had been labelled the greatest ever female gymnast, even before she made her Olympic debut, proved that all the hype had not been misplaced as she mopped up the title by a margin of 2.100 points.
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Biles chirped “2020?”, hoping her friend will be coming along for the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020. The Russian used a brilliant uneven bars routine to earn 15.666 points, to take the lead and her score was the best of the night on the apparatus. She finished first on the floor and first on the beam.
