It’s now three down, two to go for Simone Biles, as the American sensation seeks to become the first gymnast to win five gold medals in a single Olympics (only six are possible).
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She took gold ahead of Maria Paseka of Russian Federation with Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland winning bronze in the Rio Olympics Arena.
Dipa Karmakar is the first Indian woman to compete in Olympic gymnastics and the first Indian gymnast to qualify for an individual event final.
Simone Manuel anchored the USA women’s 4×100 metres medley relay team to the 1,000th gold medal in her country’s summer Olympic history on Saturday, and the second of her career.
Simone Biles reacts to winning her third gold medal.
Biles became the fourth straight American woman and fifth overall to win the all-around title while cementing her reputation as the best of her generation and perhaps ever.
Douglas’ all-around gold in made her the first African-American woman to win the event. But Biles came to Rio with a tricky new vault mastered, ready for gold.
Jake Dalton was the first American to compete and couldn’t stick a clean landing on his tumbling passes.
She also said she was disappointed in her first vault. Her biggest competition in Rio: Russia’s Maria Paseka and North Korea’s Hong Un-jong.
At the end of day eight, United States topped the medal tally with 60 medals (24 Gold, 18 Silver, 18 Bronze), followed by China on 41 (13 Gold, 11 Silver, 17 Bronze). She also now has the most World Championship and Olympic medals of any gymnast.
“This is an fantastic group of girls”, said Vollmer, who came back after taking two years off and having a baby son Arlen since London. While Biles has no equal among her contemporaries, Comaneci did say it was too soon to declare if Biles was the greatest of all time.
Each gymnast performed two vaults, and her final score is the average of both.
“She is so unique that she can beat everybody by two points”, added Comaneci.
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Floor exercise for the women will likely come down to Biles and Raisman again. Whitlocks score of 15.633 was just enough to edge Hypolito, who finished with a 15.533. On Sunday, Biles and her teammates will compete for more medals in the individual apparatus events. She is the reigning world champion on both events.
