The unapologetic pursuit of perfection is probably a requirement to finding yourself en route to five Olympic gold medals, so maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise.
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The American beat world champion Maria Paseka of Russian Federation with a score of 15.966 from her two vaults. After scoring bronze and silver in her first two individual events, she went on to upset dominant Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu to take 200m backstroke gold on the penultimate day of swimming at Rio 2016.
This makes her the first American female gymnast to win three gold medals in one Olympics.
On Monday, Biles competes in the balance beam final and finishes up Tuesday in the floor exercise final.
Of the 1,000 gold medals, more than half have come from track and field (323) and swimming (246), USOC added. Silver and bronze went to Brazilian gymnasts in Diego Hypolito and Arthur Mariano. He was an alternate four years ago in London and struggled on floor exercise in the team final last week as the USA finished fifth. As if that wasn’t enough of an accomplishment, he broke Aaron Peirsol’s seven-year old world record while swimming the first leg of the men’s 100m medley final on August 14. She almost made it a two-gold night, and a three-gold meet, but her time of 24.09 seconds in the 50 free was two-hundredths of a second behind gold medalist Pernille Blume of Denmark. Three-time Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas, the all-around champion in London, finished seventh in what is likely her final competition.
It’s Biles’ third gold of these Games, having already won the individual all-around and, with Team USA, the team all-around final.
RIO DE JANEIRO – Simone Biles won her third Olympic gold by capturing the vault title at Rio Olympic Arena on Sunday, and it wasn’t even close.
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Kocian, a 19-year-old Dallas, Texas, native, is the 2015 world champion on the uneven bars.
