Even so, it was also an historic moment for her teammates Gabrielle Douglas and Aly Raisman who became the first American women to win three Olympic gold medals in gymnastics.
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Her male counterpart, Japan’s Kohei Uchimura was hailed as “the greatest of all time” by Comaneci after he sustained his all around winning streak for eight years, winning Olympic golds in 2012 and 2016 in addition to a record six successive world titles.
“The longevity at this level, three world championships and an Olympic Games, I don’t think is precedented”. The back-to-back world sevens series champions beat Japan 20-5 and Britain rallied to beat No. 2-ranked South Africa 7-5.
“Everything she did was ugly”, Boorman said.
The “bouncy” gymnast regained the lead on the beam with a 15.433 and, as the last performer of the night, needed only a 13.833 on floor, her favorite event, to win.
Nastia Liukin won gold and Shawn Johnson captured the silver at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
To try to put her greatness into perspective, most top gymnasts are dominant in one event but Biles is the exception.
Biles’ performance came on a day when golf returned to the Olympics for the first time since it was played at the 1904 games in St. Louis – England’s Justin Rose marking the occasion with a hole-in-one. Of course, the current scoring system in place, with an emphasis on difficulty that Biles works to her advantage, has only been in place for three Olympics, including Rio. She earned back her lead after the balance beam and after that, it was basically over.
Biles erased whatever lingering doubts there were about whether she’s the greatest gymnast of all time Thursday, winning the Olympic all-around title in a rout.
France’s Florent Manaudou (R) looks dejected after he placed second in the Men’s 50m Freestyle Final during the swimming event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on August 12, 2016. As a huge gymnastics fan since 1999, I also found her reaction a little off-putting and instantly knew it was another controversy she would have to deal with.
“I had to focus”, said Biles who finished by leading the way with her high-speed tumbling Samba performance that earned a standing ovation.
She scored a combined 15.966 after two powerful vaults – 15.900 and 16.033 – to take gold ahead of world champion Maria Paseka of Russian Federation (15.253).
“We all knew that Simone was going to win, and I was hoping to get second”, USA teammate Aly Raisman admitted.
“It’s very special to finally be on the podium”. She helped the United States women’s team to second in the 4x100m freestyle race.
Mustafina, 21, took her sixth Olympic medal over two Olympics.
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One that she does better than anyone else. Gabby Douglas was in third place for qualifying for the all-around, but the “two per country” rule restricted team U.S. from being able to send more than Raisman and Biles. Only two gymnasts per country can compete in Thursday’s final, leaving Douglas out of luck.
