Dynamic on vault. Effortless on beam. Jaw-dropping on floor. Brilliant all over.
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Biles, already an Olympic champion after leading the “Final Five” to gold in the team event, was briefly challenged by European champion Mustafina.
The 19-year-old American soared to the all-around title on Thursday by putting the gap between herself and the rest of the world on full display under the Olympic spotlight. Meanwhile, Simone Manuel won silver as part of a relay team and tied for a gold when she and Canadian Penny Oleksiak both set a world record in the 100 meter freestyle. Raisman and Douglas took first and second place, which denied the 2008 champion, Jordyn Wieber from defending her title. The 2.1 point difference is staggering considering that when Douglass won the individual all-around in 2012, she edged out Russian gymnast Viktoria Komova by a mere 0.259 points.
“I found it very insulting”.
“Simone Biles and me are practically the same person”, Manuel said. “I had to remind myself to keep doing the routines we practiced”. “I didn’t know if we would be able to make this little girl to focus and to be very disciplined”. It means the world to me.
“Every emotion hit me at once”, Biles said. With three straight world all-around titles in a row, her Olympic victory gives her the distinction of being the only woman to win every major global competition in a single Olympic quadrennium, the “grand slam” of gymnastics. “It is for some of the African-Americans who have come before me”, she added, referencing former Olympians Maritza Correia and Cullen Jones.
Simone Biles was in parabolic orbit. That’s not true because I work just as hard as anybody else, and I love the sport.
Only Nadia Comaneci, who won three gold medals at the 1976 Olympics, even enters the conversation. “I feel like I did my job tonight”. It’s insane. I can’t wait to see Marta and my family.
She was just 0.034 points behind – the equivalent of one wobble – and uneven bars are her “worst” event. Glitter from Biles’ eyes dried on her cheeks.
On Thursday, that all coalesced in a performance that left Biles with an overall score of 62.198 in her four events, punctuated by the highest score of the competition (15.933) in the floor exercise that ended it. It’s not a coincidence.
Biles was adopted by her grandparents as a toddler, and she was discovered by coach Aimee Boorman’s mother during a field trip to the gym where Boorman was coaching. Biles hasn’t lost an all-around competition since the summer of 2013, and the win streak should go on as long as Biles wants. 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. Biles went back in front with a 15.433 on beam and capped it with a 15.933 on floor.
“I’m not a celebrity”.
The 19-year-old Biles was almost overcome with emotion when she realized she had won the Olympic title.
Raisman hugged Biles 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. This time, the 22-year-old team captain, whom the American gymnasts call “grandma, ” was well ahead.
She blew kisses to the crowd after her floor exercise, overcome by a comeback that at times seemed in doubt. “I just do my gymnastics”, she said after collecting her second Olympic gold in three days.
Jack Sock and Steve Johnson are taking on the bronze medal match in tennis doubles today at 2 p.m. EST against Canada.
Undefeated since she placed second behind 2012 Olympian Kyla Ross at a friendly meet in Germany three years ago, 19-year-old Biles has dominated domestic and global competition, becoming a 10-time world champion in just three years.
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Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
