Her seemingly superhuman flexibility, grace and power has already seen her win gold in the women’s gymnastics team event in Rio, even before tonight’s individual all-around final when she won her second – her total was 62.198 – and awed the crowd.
Advertisement
But more significantly, it ended four years of Olympic frustration.
She led a United States 1-2 ahead of American Jewish gymnastics star Aly Raisman, with Russia’s Aliya Mustafina, who is of Muslim descent on her father’s side, taking her second straight Olympic all-around bronze.
Biles opened up on vault with a leading score of 15.866 before falling behind Mustafina after only an average performance on the uneven bars.
American Gabby Douglas is the defending Olympic champion, but will be on the sidelines Thursday. Biles led the USA team to a similarly large margin when the Final Five won gold Tuesday. She clutched the white railing in front of her during Biles’ floor routine, nodding with approval with each gravity-escaping tumbling pass.
Up to today, the biggest margin of victory between gold and silver in the all-around competition had been a very tight 1.4 points when Czechoslovakia’s Vera Caslavska beat the Soviet Union’s Zinaida Voronina in the 1968 Games. Biles was flawless in her floor, earning the highest score of the day (15.933) and becoming emotional after she realised she won gold.
The way Biles is handling this Olympic gymnastic competition so far, anything seems possible.
Romania’s fencers beat top-ranked China to win the gold medal in women’s team epee Thursday. “I’m the first Simone Biles“.
“I’m not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps, I’m the first Simone Biles”.
Simone Biles has become the darling of the Olympics, capturing the hearts of audiences around the world in awe of her unbelievable physical feats.
It keeps three-time world all-around champion Biles’ bid for a record five women’s gymnastics golds on track with vault, beam and floor finals to come in Rio.
Few would bet against her doing exactly that.
The top group went to the beam for the third rotation, with Biles starting things off.
Raisman, meanwhile, was fourth after two rotations, but moved into third on beam and took silver thanks to a floor routine that was second only to Biles’. Raisman hugged her gently as they awaited the final score – a mere formality – and tears appeared around Biles’ glittery red, white and blue eyeliner when the vision she once wrote in a scrapbook became a reality.
That puts Biles above many great gymnasts that Karolyi has worked with in a long and distinguished career.
Raisman secured the silver after beating rival Aliya Mustafina.
The last routine of the night was Biles on floor.
Advertisement
But this time there would be no stopping her. Her coach said he believes Van Acker contracted a severe intestinal infection while training in Rio in July that sapped her energy. This time, the 22-year-old team captain the Americans call “grandma” was well ahead. Expect more smiles and three more gold medals before Biles leaves Rio.
