When you’re the greatest female gymnast in history even the wake-up calls are different.
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Simone Biles struck gold once again at the Rio Olympics, overcoming all obstacles and becoming the 2016 women’s all-around gold medalist.
Biles led a U.S. 1-2 in the Rio Olympic Arena ahead of Aly Raisman with Russia’s Aliya Mustafina taking her second straight Games all-around bronze. She tallied her second gold medal in Rio, following USA’s team gold on Tuesday, and said it was her final event on Thursday in the all-around that was her defining point. Paseka was the only other gymnast to top 15 on each of her vaults.
Orange County’s Sam Mikulak was not as fortunate. Joining her in the final will be another American, Laurie Hernandez.
The Russian scored low to allow Raisman, the Olympic floor champion, to pull ahead with a flawless routine, finishing in tears after four near-flawless routines.
Mikulak said he “got pretty rattled” by the noise. You never know that feeling until it hits you.
“This medal is not just for me”. But Thursday night in Rio, Biles had to make it happen for real.
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Simone Biles remained golden at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Biles was trailing after two events, but she blew away the competition in the final two events and won by a record margin to take gold. Having already won a silver medal, Manuel took home a gold one with a victory in the women’s 100m freestyle swimming competition. That, combined with the remarkable performance of Biles, will likely and hopefully help balance the numbers. Second place went to Maria Paseka of Russian Federation at 15.253. She by far pulled off the most technically hard vaults of everyone else in the event, and her two routines were absolutely flawless. Maria Paseka of Russian Federation won the silver medal, and Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland won the bronze. “I’ll just pray normally to myself, but I have it there in case”, the 19-year-old told the magazine in a July 8 interview. “She was like ‘Ooooh.’ She didn’t like it”. But her near fall cost her a chance at five gold medals in five events. Here’s how she stacked up versus the second-best scores.
