Russia’s Seda Tutkhalian led the way in early Olympics women’s gymnastics qualifying with United States star Simone Biles and reigning all-around champion Gabby Douglas competing later on Sunday (Aug 7).
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Madison Kocian, who made the Rio squad for her strength on the uneven bars, scored a 15.866 to take hold of the top spot and qualify for the uneven bars event final.
The Americans scored 185.238 to top qualifying ahead of China, Russia, Britain and Brazil. Biles and Raisman will compete in the floor final.
“Her bar routine does score higher than mine”, Raisman told NJ.com.
Simone Biles of United States of America looks to threaten countrywoman Gabreille Douglas for the all-around title in women’s artistic gymnastics.
Biles and teammate Aly Raisman, a 2012 returnee from the gold-medal-winning team, qualified in the all-around final.
It would have been easy to do it, but Gabby Douglas didn’t blame the two-per-country rule that will keep her from defending her Olympic all-around gold.
Her two vaults averaged a score of 14.999, which was good enough for fifth.
“I just wanted to go out there and believe in my abilities and use the talent that I was given”, she said. “I always like that combination and I think it works this time”.
The only hardware missing for Biles – who wasn’t eligible to compete in the 2012 Olympics in London because of her age – is an Olympic medal.
Under Armour, who is providing all the uniforms for the USA women’s and men’s gymnastics teams in Rio, has only revealed one competition leotard so far.
But Douglas’ pain and frustration is Raisman’s joy. In Sunday’s events, they placed 1-2-3 in qualifications for Tuesday’s all-around final. Simone Biles took a small hop on the landing of her first vault.
“I think that’s really special”, said Biles, the three-time world champion who is going to need an armored auto to get all her bling home after posting the top scores on vault, floor exercise and balance beam. “I’ve been on both sides of it”, said Raisman, who was the odd woman out at world championships a year ago where Douglas won silver behind Biles.
“The team medal is in our hands, it really depends on the number of mistakes we make”.
Douglas is bidding to become the first woman since Czechoslovakia’s Vera Caslavska in 1968 to win back-to-back all-around gold. She even has a move on her favorite event, floor, named after her. Douglas had shaken off a sub-par performance in Olympic trials and quieted critics who were convinced she didn’t deserve to make this team. Their not-a-typo score of 185.238 was almost 10 points better than second-place China through four of the five subdivisions, a preposterous gap in a sport where the difference between first and second is measured in fractions. She knows how much talent Douglas has.
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Karolyi has said that this will be her last Olympics. She’s got two gold medals from that Olympics.
