Newly-crowned all-around gymnastics champ Simone Biles was back at it again on Sunday, competing in the vault finals in Rio.
Advertisement
In Rio, Biles already has three gold medals from the team final, the all-around and the vault.
Going last in a field of eight gymnasts, Biles needed an average score of more than 15.253 to claim gold. Forty-one-year-old Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan attempted the world’s most hard vault move in order to best Biles, but fell, according to the New York Times. The Brits added a team bronze in London four years ago and the momentum has continued to build. Smith’s silver gave him three on pommels in his career and Whitllock’s sublime routine had the teammates standing side by side on the podium as the Union Jack was raised and “God Save the Queen” played over the loudspeakers.
What the heck’s an Amanar? She fell on her landing. She unleashed a soaring Amanar on her first vault, taking a small hop backwards as she landed. It’s a roundoff onto the board and a half-twist onto the table, followed by a front layout with a twist. Don’t try this at home.
Even sitting next to the runway awaiting her turn, Biles could not be missed. The vault tallied a 16.033 and irked (but not really) one of the Olympics commentators. “Her, no. She makes her mind up and that’s it”. “I think it’s an unbelievable accomplishment [to make history]”.
“Oh, yes, I did”, Biles said, finally beginning to grasp what she’s accomplished at the Rio Games. Also doing the Produnova, she almost landed it on her feet but her bottom crashed down onto the mat seconds later.
Her 14 world championship medals are the most ever won by an American woman. “It was good, I feel very excited because having two silvers and a bronze from the Worlds, it means a lot to me”. She is the first Indian gymnast to make an Olympic final and went for a huge vault-the Produnova-valued out of a 7.0 difficulty score. That’s.713 behind Biles. It’s kind of like a soccer team winning by seven goals, or a football team by seven touchdowns. Swiss Giulia Steingruber (15.216) took bronze in the Rio Olympics Arena.
Prior to the contest, many observers thought Biles’ toughest competition might come from North Korea’s Hong Un-Jong.
Simone Biles is only 19 years old and stands just 4ft 8in and yet she looms giant over the other gymnasts at these Olympics. Reigning gold medalist Lasse Norman Hansen of Denmark leads the six-discipline event at the midway point, but the British star is within striking distance.
She also said she was disappointed in her first vault.
Advertisement
It’s an incredible feat for Manuel and the United States of America, and while her 2016 Olympic journey has come to an incredibly successful end we can be sure that it won’t be her last.
