They’re the final team to compete under the guidance of legend Marta Karolyi.
Advertisement
The five-woman U.S. team -Biles, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Madison Kocian and Laurie Hernandez – claimed gold by a margin of over eight points on Russian Federation with China winning bronze in the Rio Olympic Arena.
In the team final, they edged out their competitors not only by a few tenths but by multiple points, NBC Olympics reports. Starting in 2020, teams will be comprised of four members for the team competition, with the opportunity to qualify up to two additional gymnasts as specialists for event finals. The Final Five’s score was the largest margin of victory since the scoring system “Perfect 10” was implemented in 2006.
“Maybe I pop in the gym and see if they are going in the right direction”, Karolyi said.
The U.S. team came out and just hit routine after routine after routine.
The surprise came after the competition, between Biles’ final floor exercise and the victory ceremony. When she nailed her first set of flips, everyone knew the United States of America would be taking home gold.
It’s back-to-back Olympic gold medals for the US women’s gymnastics team! Raisman, who won three medals in London four years ago and seemed to be on the outside looking in as recently as this spring, followed with perhaps the finest vault of her long career. In their 28 rotations over two days, Team USA was near flawless. She has four titles from the USA championships. “She’s just special – the best gymnast I’ve ever seen in my lifetime”, said Mary Lou Retton, the first US woman to win the Olympic all-around title. She will be joined by Raisman on the floor and Hernandez in the beam, while Douglas and Kocian will attempt to win medals in the bars.
Next came the uneven bars, the lone apparatus where Biles has shown glimpses of mortality, where she stuck a flawless dismount for a 14.800.
Despite the tie, the USA still won the four-team Group G and will advance to a quarterfinal match in the capital Brasilia on Friday. Also on vault were Aly Raisman who earned a 15.833 and Simone Biles who earned a 15.933 for one of the best overall scores of the night.
She would become a role model for Gabby Douglas, who flung open the door of imagination to the future all the more in the 2012 London Games when she became the first African-American to win an individual all-around championship in the Olympics.
USA women’s gymnastic team cantered to win the gold leaving other nations way behind. Even when it’s expected, winning never gets old.
Advertisement
Check out the rest of her thoughts on The Biles below. The Karolyis’ ranch and its training camps will live on, though. “I like her personality”.
