They finally have their first two golds thanks to the 23-year-old Whitlock.
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Simone Biles finished in first place at the qualifying event with a 15.633.
Biles, who has already won all-around, vault and team gold, goes in the floor final on Tuesday.
And that’s it. Nothing more. Yet going 5 for 5 was always somebody else’s deal.
“I’m not disappointed in the medal that I received because anyone would love to have a bronze at an Olympic Games”, she said. “Besides that error, the rest of the routine was excellent”.
Even if it wasn’t quite good enough to stand atop the podium for once.
Ruth Jebet won Bahrain’s first-ever Olympic gold medal with victory in the 3,000 meters steeplechase. And just before the Rio Games began, video surfaced of Hong performing a triple-twisting Yurchenko – a sort of unicorn when it comes to vaults – with the help of her coach. If she wins, she’ll join a small group of other gymnasts – Ecaterina Szabo, Larisa Latynina, and Vera Caslavska – who’ve won four golds at a single Olympics.
But her result reflected the effort, throwing off her dream of a record five gold medals at the same Games. “She doesn’t like to make mistakes”.
Hernandez took to the beam, and she nailed every move.
It needed to be for Wevers to edge Hernandez.
Standing beside her was Hernandez, as sparkly as her red leotard, recalling with a laugh that she’d tweeted 12 months earlier that the Rio Olympics were “one year away!” and posted a video to illustrate her excitement. Biles didn’t live up to her own standard, one that has nothing to do with what she wears around her neck and everything with doing her gymnastics. Balance beam is the most hard apparatus I would say. She looked strong in her front tuck and didn’t wobble at all on the four inch-wide beam. She did it on her way to the venue Monday, helping calm any lingering jitters.
“I don’t know who decided that”, Bolt said. I think gymnastics will be more popular in Brazil.
Biles’s teammate, the awesome Laurie Hernandez, jumped ahead of Biles for the silver medal.
One of the slips cost USA gymnastics star Simone Biles gold on the balance beam. She waited for Hernandez’s score alongside her, with the two smiling and talking, knowing Hernandez had a shot at the podium.
Watch the full video of Biles’ routine here.
“I’m so happy she could share with the world what she does in practice, and that’s exactly what she did tonight”, Biles said.
Laurie Hernandez performs in the balance beam finals on Monday, August 15. “It doesn’t always turn out the best but you could not blame her because she always gave what she had”.
Asked if she were disappointed that the much ballyhooed “Drive for Five” had fallen short, Biles said, “Not necessarily”.
Though Wevers is No. 2 in the world on the balance beam, the way Biles had performed until then, winning three gold medals in other events, made it unthinkable that she would lose this title. Eleftherios Petrounias of Greece powered his way to gold on still rings.
Reigning Olympic champion Arthur Zanetti of Brazil had to settle for rings silver with 15.766.
That will be followed by the finals of the men’s vault at 1:54 p.m.
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Simone Biles’ bid for a record five women’s gymnastics gold medals in Rio ended today when the U.S. star was beaten into third place on the beam by Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands. The gold medal went to Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands at 15.466. She was the top qualifier with a huge 15.633 in qualifications.
