-Alexander Naddour won bronze for the United States in the pommel horse final Sunday at the Rio Games.
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Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina, bidding to become the oldest ever gymnast to win an Olympic medal at the age of 41, finished seventh out of the eight finalists after over-rotating on her Produnova.
(AP Photo/Michael Sohn). United States’ Simone Manuel shows off her gold medal during the medal ceremony for the women’s 100-meter freestyle final during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 12, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, B.
Maria Paseka of Russian Federation averaged 15.253 for silver with Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland averaging 15.216 winning bronze.
Biles stayed in the hunt for a record five gold medals by a female gymnast at one Olympic Games. Her score of 16.033 for her “Cheng” was the best of the night. Needing only to land her second vault to win, Biles was near flawless. Along with her 14 world championship medals, Biles has now surpassed Shannon Miller for the title of most decorated US gymnast. Her main challengers included North Korea’s Hong Un-jong, the gold medalist on vault in Beijing, who beat her at the world championships last year; Switzerland’s Giulia Steingruber, who came in third in the qualifiers; Maria Paseka of Russian Federation, who qualified fourth and won the vault final at last year’s championships; and Oksana Chusovitina, the 41-year-old representing Uzbekistan, who qualified fifth. The two Americans qualified in first and second position, respectively, meaning that Team USA’s medal campaign is far from over ― it’s hardly even begun.
“My first gold medal, at my first Olympics, is kind of a surprise to me”, Manuel told reporters.
“I see other blacks and African-Americans doing basketball, and running and doing volleyball, so I think the hardest part was coming to terms with, you know, this is what you love to do so you should do it”, she said. Arthur Mariano of Brazil earned bronze for the host country.
Mikulak said he “got pretty rattled” by the noise.
Manuel’s teammate, Lia Neal, earned silver on the 4×100 free relay in Rio and bronze on the same relay four years ago in London.
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-Whitlock’s gold was his second of the day after winning the floor exercise final.
