So convincingly that she momentarily lost the lead, trailing Russia’s Aliya Mustafina by.034 points after the vault and uneven bars, and no one batted a fake eyelash. After winning her second straight gold medal, Harrison announced her retirement and may well be soon battling former judo bronze medalist Ronda Rousey in the UFC.
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Those mistakes saw her drop down from seventh to 13th, to miss out on emulating her sister Becky Downie, who came 12th in the all-around final at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
The Romanian gymnast revolutionized, or at least jumpstarted, the sport at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. She and her siblings were sent to foster care, where she vaguely remembers a trampoline in the yard.
Karolyi called Biles a “force of nature”. She probably also meant in the annals of the sport.
“Always have fun”, she said after a dominating gold medal victory in women’s all-around gymnastics competition.
“I made myself a little angry before beam”, Raisman said.
“Some of us don’t really even pay attention to the scores”. (Think of Katie Ledecky being named the “Michael Phelps”, of women’s swimming.) Sometimes a comparison isn’t even made but credit is given elsewhere altogether. Biles is the only woman in the world who does the “Biles”. It brings everything together.
“Oh, gosh”, she said. “Every emotion came out in me at once, so it was kind of a train wreck”.
Apples and oranges and all, it’s intriguing food for thought.
The path to that redemption has been clear since Raisman arrived in Brazil, with only Biles posting better scores in the qualifying rounds Sunday and team final Tuesday.
“It’s wonderful to be recognised for all of this success, (but) I’m not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps, I’m the first Simone Biles”.
Simone Biles stood in the middle of a horde of journalists.
It was a surprisingly candid answer from Biles, who had quite understandably spent the past three days in affable-interview-robot mode, continually fending off, with her disarming smile, inquiries about her excitement level for Rio.
That’s because gold has been out of reach for everyone but Biles for three years and counting.
The fascination started two years earlier when rain forced Biles’ day-care to cancel a trip to a farm, according to SIKids.com. They are grateful to be the one to the other. Heading back to her family’s home in Spring, Texas, with anything less than a fistful of golds would have been a disappointment.
“She told me she would take a year off and go to college”.
Since Mustafina had fallen on beam but had been excellent on the other three events, while Raisman had been solid on all three events, Mustafina won the tiebreaker and the medal. Biles struggled so much in a U.S. Championships tune-up meet that she was pulled by Boorman before completing the competition. “She couldn’t control any landing”. “She could do big skills up here but couldn’t land”.
She leaned her head into her hands and cried when she recognised her historic achievement.
Biles and Raisman received a standing ovation from spectators at the Rio Olympic Arena on Thursday evening, even though many had not come to support the U.S. team. She’s pure muscle. But in gymnastics you don’t just have to be strong, fast and flexible.
Competing in event finals will be Biles on vault, Madison Kocian and Gabby Douglas on uneven bars, Biles and Laurie Hernandez on balance beam and Biles and Raisman on floor exercise.
By any measure, past or present (the scoring system was changed in 2006), it was a lopsided victory.
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In the lead-up to 2012, as in 2016, few expected Raisman to qualify for the all-around.
