Biles is now part of history along with the only three other gymnasts that have won four golden medals at the Games.
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The 1.45m (4ft 9ins) gymnast from Texas got the crowd behind her with her Samba routine to lead a United States 1-2 ahead of Aly Raisman. “She’s just at another level”.
In third place was Amy Tinkler, becoming the first British female gymnast to win an Olympic medal in Rio and first British woman ever to win an Olympic medal on floor exercise.
ESPN reported that the mistake in the beam nor the title of the first athlete to win five gold medals did not stress Biles.
Biles, who was a tween when Efron rose to stardom on “High School Musical”, said on Twitter: “Just call me Mrs. Efron already”.
“I would never rank myself”, Biles said. “I would like to have a big Russian team around me, as usual, but unfortunately I’m here alone and this is a great responsibility”.
“I feel really good at 22 and I can’t wait to see what is to come”, Raisman said after scoring a silver medal in the all-around competition.
Though many Americans were hopeful that Simone would sweep all five of her events and win gold each time, a disappointing routine dropped her down below American teammate Laurie Hernandez, who won silver.
It was Biles’ consistency day in and day out that stood out.
Biles is the proud owner of a life-sized cardboard cutout of the Hollywood star that is proudly displayed in her room, which she unashamedly admits to kissing it on the cheek at times. Despite nearly falling from the beam, Biles won bronze. “Aly told Andrea she would consider it”, the site mentioned. Her ending included a stag leap, a move she also used in the individual all-around but left out of her team performance.
Brazil, in 2012 the first Latin nation to win an Olympic gymnastics medal when Arthur Zanetti took the gold in the rings event, confirmed its move from a regional to a world power when Zanetti won the silver in the rings and Diego Hypolito and Arthur Mariano took the silver and bronze, respectively, in the floor exercises. Only four other women in artistic gymnastics have won four gold medals in a single Olympics, the last coming in 1984 by Romanian Ecaterina Szabo.
Gymnastics is a sport decided by tenths and hundredths of points, its difficulty and different apparatuses all but ensuring that no one person can get comfortable at the top.
“It’s fantastic, obviously. I’m really happy for Laura”, Kenny said.
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Gymnasts aren’t long for their world, and this likely was the last we see of Biles in the Olympics.
