For Douglas, team finals – where the Americans can have a bad day and still win gold – await, and she’ll have uneven bar finals later in the week. It was a stark improvement from the Olympic trials where Douglas fell off the beam not once, but twice, leaving Karolyi to defend the decision to put her on the team. Biles is the three-time world all-around champion 2013 to 2015, four-time the United States, national all-around champion 2013-2016, three-time world floor champion 2013-2015, two-time world balance beam champion 2014-2015 and a member of the gold medal-winning American teams at the 2014 and the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
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“I’m not disappointed at all”, Douglas told the Associated Press on Sunday, via a report by People Magazine.
At the US trials in July, she put in a series of shaky performances, including falling off the beam.
“I really wanted to finish with a good note and not be like “Whatever, whatever”, she admitted, although she qualified for the finals on uneven bars. On Twitter, several users weighed in on the situation.
Aly Raisman and the US women’s gymnastics team put on a show at Sunday’s qualifying session in Rio de Janeiro. “There’s nothing to be ashamed about”.
Isabela Onyshko (57.232) and Ellie Black (56.965) were the top Canadians and will compete in the individual the all-around final.
“Gabby was excellent”, her coach, Christian Gallardo, said. She says the comments deeply disrespect adopted children and parents. With Biles a shoo-in for one of the U.S.’s two spots in the individual all-around and few of the gymnasts from other countries offering much in the way of competition (though shoutout to Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina, owning the vault at age 41!), each event mostly served to propel the Gabby vs. Aly plot forward.
The good news is Team USA is likely to get two medals from the individual all-around, and all three will get to compete in the team all-around, in which America should certainly win gold.
“It just comes out of my personality”, she said. Perhaps that’s part of the reason why Douglas took Sunday’s setback so well. “I wanted to go out there and have fun”.
She believes she has repaid USA gymnastics national team coordinator Marta Karolyi’s faith in her ability. She was hugging us after the competition. “She’s a rock star in training, never makes a bobble, and she wanted to hit it”. Laurie Hernandez will also represent the United States in the final after finishing second on the beam. Back in 2012, she found herself on the wrong side of a tie breaking procedure in the all-around final. “I wish they would change that”.
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“That’s the rules and you have to respect their decision, but it is heartbreaking”.
