While she’s aware of her growing celebrity inside the athlete’s village, Biles and coach Aimee Boorman are trying to remain in the comfortable rhythm Biles and the rest of her “Final Five'”teammates follow during any other meet”. Mustafina took third in the all-around last week behind Biles and Aly Raisman, calling the Americans “unbeatable”.
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Simone Biles will compete for her fourth gold medal in Rio.
Simone Biles won the women’s vault final in the Rio Olympic Arena, setting a new mark for wins in a single Olympics by an American woman.
On Day 10 of Olympic competition, Simone Biles heads to the balance beam; Allyson Felix will race for her first Olympic 400-meter gold; a heavyweight champion will be crowned, and the USA men face Mexico in volleyball.
Douglas had already come under fire for her inclusion in the Olympic team despite struggling in United States trials. Biles will have a chance at more gold later this week when she competes in the event finals on balance beam and floor exercise. Paseka claimed silver and Switzerland’s Giulia Steingruber pipped India’s Dipa Karmakar by 0.15 of a point to take bronze.
“There’s a lot of satisfaction”, Biles said. “I think it’s an fantastic accomplishment [to make history]”.
“Sometimes if I’m laying in bed (and think about it), I’m impressed with myself”, Biles said.
Or roommate Laurie Hernandez reminds her.
“I just wanted to stick a vault so badly here and it didn’t happen”, Biles said, “so of course I’m disappointed about that – but I can’t be disappointed about the gold”. “I got the gold with the team the other day and that was very special”.
That’s not to say she’s blind to her imperfections.
She also said she was disappointed in her first vault.
How to Watch: See Felix run for gold live online when coverage of the event begins at 7:20 p.m. ET, or see it on NBC4’s primetime coverage. “She was like, ‘Ugggh.’ She didn’t like it”. But when she launched into the air for a second time, she was foot flawless as she nailed the landing from her Cheng vault, a round off half turn into the table, followed by 1-1/2 twisting front somersault. Despite her age, she was one of just two competitors who attempted the risky Produnova vault, which carries a 7.0 level of difficulty and is nicknamed “vault of death”. Biles was able to do both, which is why her score broke a 16.
“We were very confident once we went out there”, Simone Biles said of her team’s earlier win.
“She wasn’t actually happy with her first vault because she can do it better than that”, Boorman said. If she pulls it off, she’ll be the first American gymnast to win four gold medals in one Olympics since 1904, when Anton Heida won five.
Other successes from the day include female gymnast Madison Kocian’s silver on the uneven bars, and male gymnast Alex Naddour’s bronze medal on the pommel horse.
Felix also earned gold medals in the 4×100 and 4×400 relays in London to become the first female US track athlete to win three gold medals at a single Olympics since Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988.
Allyson Felix is a medal contender in the women’s 400 with the final coming up in the evening.
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“I got pretty rattled”, said Mikulak, who competes Tuesday on high bar. “I still love the people who love me, still love them who hate me, and I’m just going to stand on that”.
