It is the first time an American woman has won gold on the event. Biles, who helped the “Final Five” to team gold and dominated the all-around competition last week, averaged 15.966 on her two vaults Sunday to become the first American woman to win the event at the Olympics. The 23-year-old edged Brazil’s Diego Hypolito in the men’s floor exercise then beat teammate and friendly rival Louis Smith on pommel horse a short time later.
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If she can win both – and she registered the top scores in both events during the individual all-around, where she earned another gold medal – she will tie American swimmer Michael Phelps’ 2016 haul of five gold medals (he also won a silver in these Games).
The American beat world champion Maria Paseka of Russian Federation with a score of 15.966 from her two vaults. The crowd gave a huge ovation to 41-year-old Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan, competing in her seventh (yes, seventh) Olympics.
In the Olympics vault final, gymnasts must compete two vaults. She practically could have sat down on her next vault, the Cheng, but scored a 16.033.
Biles nailed it, thrusting her arms in the air, her beaming grin complementing her sparkling red leotard and shimmering eyeliner.
“If you jump like Simone with your legs straight and together, and if your landings are flawless, then you can compete on her level”, Paseka said.
She scored 15.900 on the vault called an “Amanar” after Simona Amanar of Romania, who preceded her as Olympic all-around champion in 2000. Mustafina’s score of 15.900 was just a touch better than Kocian’s score of 15.833.
As U.S. Gymnastics tells us, with today’s gold medal, Biles sets a U.S. record for the most gymnastics gold medals in one Olympics for a female athlete. Despite her age, she was one of just two competitors who attempted the unsafe Produnova vault, which carries a 7.0 level of difficulty and is nicknamed “vault of death”. Dipa Karmakar, India’s first Olympic gymnast, finished just shy of the podium in fourth. Bronze medalist Giulia Steingruber had the next highest individual vault score with a 15.533. Also doing the Produnova, she almost landed it on her feet but her bottom crashed down onto the mat seconds later.
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Just check out that new souvenir she picked up Sunday. She will also compete on balance beam on Monday and floor exercise on Tuesday.
