USA Gymnastics women’s team coordinator Martha Karolyi, who after the victory called Biles a “force of nature”, along with her husband, Bela, coached Nadia Comaneci. Although she faltered a bit in the first two cycles with her vault and uneven bar performances, she dominated with her beam and floor routines.
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By age 16 she was world champ, so good that she developed a Serena Williams-like psychological advantage over opponents (Williams was at the arena watching Thursday).
You will hear it said over the next day or week or maybe even a month, if the Olympic spirit lingers so long, that American gymnast Simone Biles is the greatest female athlete in the world.
The win was an emotional one for the 19-year-old, who was touted as one of the best gymnasts alive heading into the Rio games.
For Raisman, this was a second chance. She had tied for third with Aliya Mustafina, from Russian Federation. The women’s bronze medals were won by Brazil’s Mayra Aguiar and Slovenian Anamari Velensek.
As Raisman came off floor, she sobbed and waved to the crowd. It was one of three team golds that she’s been part of since the London Olympics.
Biles, of Spring, Texas, joins Carly Patterson (2004), Nastia Liukin (2008) and Gabby Douglas (2012) in a string of American all-around champions at the Summer Games. When Biles drilled her Amanar and put up a 15.933 – the highest of the night – the US was already on top of the leaderboard.
The event started at 3:00 P.M. EST (but it will air on NBC tonight during primetime, so, again, *spoilers ahead*). Raisman’s all-around score was 1.433 points ahead of Mustafina’s. Joyful and defying gravity, she earned a soaring score of 15.933. A three-time Olympic medalist in London, Raisman appeared to be on the outside of the picture looking in after a shaky performance at the world championships that left her “devastated”.
There was a moment in Thursday’s competition when Biles was not in first place. Raisman was in fourth place behind Russia’s Tutkhalian.
Balance beam followed. Few competitors attempt routines on the four-inch wide beam that are as technically hard as Biles’s.
Biles came roaring back on balance beam while Mustafina faltered. While she looked a little nervous, she stuck each turn and flip, finishing with a ideal landing and a huge smile. She scored a 15.433. Raisman looked powerful during her turn, and delivered what the announcers called “near perfection” in the event. Still, her score topped those of the other 23 gymnasts vying for medals and established her as the leader on the first rotation.
Raisman, the Olympic floor champion, pulled out a flawless floor routine to snatch silver, which was only bettered by Biles. The pressure was on Raisman, who was only one tenth of a point behind Mustafina. You fall from a balance beam that is 4 inches wide, or step out of bounds during a full-speed floor exercise, you might lose.
“When it’s time to go on beam, everybody starts biting their nails”, Biles said later, confirming her nerves.
Her score: 15.433, the best of the day.
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“Just to be able to have that with her and to experience it, it’s really going to be special”, Raisman said after qualifying on Sunday. But she was clean and precise, minimizing deductions judges could take for her execution of skills that admittedly lacked the difficulty (and point value) of the routines of taller specialists on the apparatus.
