And Simone Manuel became the first black woman to win a gold medal in an individual swimming event. That’s because Biles’ teammate Aly Raisman turned in exquisite performances on the vault and the floor to win the silver.
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Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands followed Biles and seized the moment.
The 22-year-old American now has five Olympic medals, including two won in the last three days, a winning return for a woman who took a year off after London 2012.
Raisman added to ESPN that she knows Biles deserves her newly cemented legacy as possibly the greatest of all time, and spoke to how they supported each other throughout the competition.
The 19-year-old Texan led the US women’s team to a record-margin victory in Tuesday’s team final and then followed that up two days later by outclassing the competition for gold in the individual all around. Just a few hours after Simone Biles yesterday won an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics, Simone Manuel dove into the pool and won a gold of her own.
“I would have loved to go out there and defend my title, but right now I’m just rejoicing and so far this has just been an incredible experience”, she said.
Simone will be attending the prestigious UCLA for higher education, but deferred her admission till the 2016 Rio Olympics conclude. Her combination of difficulty and execution is unprecedented.
Namesake skill, which she does on her second tumbling pass on floor exercise. “She has very good (start values), her jumps are very good, and she is always stable”. “She never won her gold at worlds but now she’s got her Olympic gold”. Biles has placed only second or third in the vault event at the past three World Championships. The crowd repeatedly shushed itself during Zanetti’s set then exploded when his score of 15.766 flashed. Russia’s Maria Paseka scored 15.253 to take home a second place finish, one year after being named the 2015 world champion on vault.
The triumph marked a high point in a renaissance that began in 2008 when Smith earned a bronze on pommel horse in Beijing. But Biles came to Rio with a tricky new vault mastered, ready for gold.
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Japan’s Kenzo Shirai earned bronze in a tiebreaker over Romania’s Marian Dragulescu. She earned a insane high 16.033 on her second vault, making her average a massive 15.966. However teammate Maya Dirado did qualify for Friday’s final.
