Simone Biles of the USA tears up as she poses with her gold medal.
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It would be six years before Shanon, now 44, would see her daughter again.
Longtime swimming frenemies Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte faced off for the final time in an Olympic pool during the men’s 200-meter individual medley.
“Along with Nadia. both of them”.
But if Biles can win her final three events over the next few days she should emerge as the star of the Rio Olympics.
That puts Biles above many great gymnasts that Karolyi has worked with in a long and distinguished career.
The Soviet Union won eight successive women’s team golds between 1952 and 1980, but in recent years Russians have slipped off the podiums as American gymnasts have taken a stranglehold of the sport.
By the time Bob Costas shifted the home audience from gymnastics to swimming, the all-around competition had reached its halfway point – and frontrunner Simone Biles was, surprisingly, not at the top of the leaderboard. The emotion of the moment, of all that had gone into fulfilling her dream of returning to the Olympics and having another shot at an all-around medal – a dream she shared with her longtime coach Mihai Brestyan but rarely anyone else – overwhelmed her.
The 19-year-old not only confounded her opponents but appeared to do similar to the laws of gravity.
Those skills also helped the gymnast nicknamed ‘$imoney’ to become the most successful female athlete at the worlds – with a record haul of 10 gold medals.
But after four years of dedicating herself to the goal of proving she is worthy of a podium finish, the enormous relief in her moment of success showed just how much it means.
“I saw Aly start to cry and said, ‘Oh, my gosh, she’s going to make me cry before floor, ‘ ” Biles said. “That’s just her personality”.
Biles, though, wants no part of the debate.
“I had been thinking about it and I was upset”, said Tutkhalian. “She just worked so hard in gym and for it to finally pay off, it amazes me”. It is what it is.
Simone Biles bites her gold medal on the podium after winning the women’s individual all-around …
United States’ Simone Biles, left, and Aly Raisman celebrate after winning gold and silver respectively for the artistic gymnastics women’s individual all-around final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.
Since the event was introduced to the Olympic programme in 1952 only Soviet Union duo Larisa Latynina (1960) and Ludmilla Tourischeva (1972), Czech Vera Caslavska (1968) and Ukraine’s Lilia Podkopayeva (1996) have bagged the double.
“Aly is an wonderful gymnast”, Horton said, “but on her vault she bends her legs a little bit, she missed a few handstands on bars”.
Raisman always knew that she was competing for the silver in Rio. Biles could continue to work out 20 hours a week, attend high school and eventually become a college gymnast or she could explore the elite level, a move that included more intensive training and being home schooled. “Most people don’t go in thinking they can beat Usain Bolt either, it’s kind of the same thing”. “It’s good to have a role model in front of you”.
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“She told me she would take a year off and go to college”. The mistake in London has been on my mind every day.
