This one was a little more personal.
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“She told me she would take a year off and go to college”.
She already owns three world championships, and now has two Olympic golds. The older “Perfect 10” scoring system made it much harder for a gymnast to run up a big lead.
It has not quite sunk in yet, Biles said.
No, Biles will never have an overall medal haul that will stack up with Michael Phelps.
When national team coordinator Martha Karolyi was asked whom she would deem the best, she gave the names of two gymnasts who won gold 40 years apart: Nadia Comaneci, from Karolyi’s homeland of Romania, practitioner of the flawless 10, and Biles, who performs tricks that have shot the sport into another galaxy.
On a Wheaties box one day, they find themselves sitting at home watching a new generation of gymnasts on television the next. Expect more smiles and three more gold medals before Biles leaves Rio.
But Bostonian Raisman, known as the “Grandma” of the team at 22 years, has experience on her side in her second Olympics. Her 15.866 in Thursday’s competition was still the highest of the meet.
For Raisman silver was like gold behind a teammate who is in another league. Most people dont go in thinking they can beat Usain Bolt either, its kind of the same thing.. Russia’s Aliya Mustafina claimed bronze.
“Just because you are at the top doesn’t mean you can stop, you have to keep going”, said Biles. Shes favored to win the vault and the balance beam golds and, along with Raisman, a co-favorite in the floor exercise.
It gets a little trickier after that, if only because of unfortunate timing.
Five golds would see her overtake Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina (1956), Czech Vera Caslavska (1968) and Romanian Ecaterina Szabo (1984), who have all won four at the same Games.
It marks the second time Team USA has gone 1-2 in Olympic history.
The way Biles is handling this Olympic gymnastic competition so far, anything seems possible.
She really ranks at the top, said Martha Karolyi, the national team coordinator who helped Nadia Comaneci score a flawless 10 in the 1976 games as a coach in Romania. “I just do my gymnastics”, she said after collecting her second Olympic gold in three days. Those are the culminations of our career..
She nailed her signature move, “The Biles”, a double-flip layout with a devilish half twist added in order to cause a blind landing and raise the degree of difficulty to the highest of any routine in the field.
Being too young to qualify for the 2012 Olympics, the 4-foot-9 gymnast has completely dominated her sport since her senior debut in 2013.
“I’ve been in five all-around finals, and each time I’ve been sucked off the podium due to mistakes”, Raisman said Thursday.
“My advice is. you are just as good as you are today”.
Watching from close by was Aimee Boorman, who has coached Biles for almost the gymnasts whole career. “That’s just her personality”. Shes certainly proven herself over the past three years that shes the greatest. Now she can say shes the greatest of all-time.
“I saw Martha in the mixed zone”, said Biles after her success.
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The American stood head and shoulders above all her rivals on Thursday after she was crowned Olympic all-around champion. I just stay out of it.
