Simone Biles got her bid for a record five gold medals at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games off to a flying start as the United States women coasted to a team gymnastics title defence on Tuesday, with China edged into third by Russian Federation after costly mistakes from the mainlanders.
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Hosszu, who is also swimming in the 200m backstroke, butterfly and medley, had come away empty-handed from three previous Olympics, despite winning five world championship titles.
Japan failed to follow their men’s team onto the podium finishing fourth ahead of Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Brazil. And here is where we will offer a spoiler alert.
He has one more race Tuesday night, anchoring the US team in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay.
Dubbing themselves the “Final Five”, Biles, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian proved that they are an untouchable force in gymnastics as they tumbled and soared to victory with a total of 184.897 points. Clearly, they are feeling great about their routines.
“You might be focusing on gripping but if you’re not paying attention the next thing you know they can catch you in some other technique and it might be all over”, she said.
London 2012 all-around champion Douglas then posted 15.766 points on the bars before Kocian scored a stunning 15.933.
From the second Laurie Hernandez drilled her opening vault to Simone Biles’ boundary-pushing floor exercise to end it, the US put on an exhibition that showed how far the divide between themselves and everyone else has become.
The arena is quite loud at times with cheering – particularly for the Brazilian team that’s concurrently competing on the floor exercise. And, not surprisingly, times get slower as an athlete ages.
The Latin American powerhouse is also struggling with its worst recession since the 1930s and there is strong opposition to hosting the Games amid the crisis. The Chinese gymnasts are dressed in purple leotards with rows of glittering silver – an effect that’s echoed in their glittery eye makeup. Their total score of 185.238 was almost 10 points better than second-place China through four subdivisions, a massive gap in a sport where the margins are often measured in fractions. Nadal was a happy man on Tuesday after his 6-3, 6-3 win over Andreas Seppi of Italy in the men’s singles second round, at the Olympic Tennis Centre.
Next up: the uneven bars.
It’s a big action day on Tuesday in the Olympic men’s rugby sevens, with teams playing two games each. “She’s just that kind of person”. When Hernandez was introduced to the crowd, Raisman nudged her and told her to wave, which the 16-year-old did with a toothy smile. There are no penalties on her score.
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The U.S. will have a good shot at another gold in the women’s 200 free, with Katie Ledecky looking to make it 2-for-2 in the longer freestyle events.
