Biles will still compete in vault, balance beam, and floor exercise finals in Rio, giving her a chance to leave with five gold medals.
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It was the first major global meet where she trailed at any point, but it hardly mattered as she scored 62.198 to win by 2.1 points. “I just feel like I did my job tonight”.
Speaking of swimming – and Olympic moments that make us verklempt – USA competitor Simone Manuel tied Canada’s Penny Oleksiak for the gold medal in the women’s 100-meter freestyle, with a record time of 52.70 seconds.
Biles soared to the all-around title on Thursday night, putting the gap between herself and everyone else on full display for the whole world to see. During that run, she won a record 10 gold medals and 14 overall. Her win of 2.1 points was bigger than the victory margin in every individual all-around from 1980 to 2012 combined. After running into her round-off, she exploded into a back handspring, then performed “The Biles.’ That move consists of a double layout with a half twist”.
Biles trailed Mustafina by 0.034 after the second rotation, during which both were on uneven bars.
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But any thoughts of the Russian recording a shock victory were quickly extinguished as Biles produced a fine beam effort to take her clear of her opponents. On floor, she was spectacular, putting together her usual soaring, technically hard routine to earn the highest score of the day. Raisman squealed as she stepped off the mat, while Biles burst into tears immediately after nabbing the gold. A three-time Olympic medalist in London, Raisman appeared to be on the outside of the picture looking in after a shaky performance at the world championships that left her “devastated”. When Biles came off, the teammates embraced each other, the persistently bubbly Biles crying in Raisman’s arms.
