That instead went to Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands.
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A tenth of a point behind her was teammate Gabby Douglas, the 2012 Olympic all-around champion who won team gold with both London’s Fierce Five and Rio’s Final Five.
It’s probably not a coincidence that Biles would pick now to finally allow a little more of a peek behind the curtain about what she has been feeling. It consists of jumping onto the springboard, doing a half twist before pushing off the vault with your hands, then doing a flip with one and a half twists.
“She may have been writing down her start score”, he said. She talked frankly about being overwhelmed by the atmosphere.
Biles was attempting a front tuck about halfway through her routine when her left foot landed on the edge of the beam. Her dismount was solid, although she took a small hop.
Wevers, 24, surged to gold with 15.466 points ahead of American Lauren Hernandez, who won silver with 15.333.
As she reached down to steady herself on the balance beam – her first visible misstep during an astonishing Olympics that includes three gold medals and some of the most boundary pushing gymnastics ever – one thought ran through her head.
Wevers’ dismount seemed flawless: she ran toward the end of the beam, flipped backward in the air and landed with a solid thud.
Biles, meanwhile, scored a 14.733 as the third gymnast up in the rotation and waited as she saw that score keep her on the podium. Her dismount was smooth, with only a small hop backward upon landing. She could even compete until she’s 41, like this remarkable gymnast.
When Biles was waiting on her own score, she’d been taking deep breaths and looking thoughtful.
SUNKEN SWIMMER: In a dramatic end to a two-hour swim off Copacabana beach, France’s Aurelie Muller was disqualified and lost her silver medal when she climbed over the back of Italy’s Rachele Bruni. Nastia Liukin explained how the Dutch gymnast was calculating the value of her routine to make sure she got the proper score. 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.
The Olympic heavyweight boxing tournament concludes Monday and the main event of the 19-fight card is the gold-medal bout between Russian world champion Evgeny Tishchenko and Kazakhstan’s Vassilliy Levit.
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Biles, whose score was only good enough for bronze behind team mate Laurie Hernandez, will get a chance to win a record-equalling fourth gold on Tuesday when she competes in the floor exercise final.
