The “Final Five” had won every gold medal available in Rio behind superstar Simone Biles. If she succeeds in winning beam gold, she’ll tie with four other women-Ecaterina Szabo, Vera Caslavska, Agnes Keleti and Larisa Latynina-for most gold medals won by a female gymnast in a single Olympics.
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“All-around champion Simone Biles scooped her third gold medal at the Olympics when she soared to victory in the vault final”.
United States’ Simone Biles celebrates after her winning gold in the vault during the artistic gymnastics women’s apparatus final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016. “The 4’8” powerhouse, who won the individual all-around competition last week, has become the first-ever US Olympic champion on the vault.
A vault gold medal at a major championships had been the one hole in Biles’ otherwise unmatched resume. Russia’s Maria Paseka won silver with a score of 15.253, and Switzerland’s Giulia Steingruber won bronze with a score of 15.216.
“I had been working on it [the Cheng], on and off, for a year”, Biles said. “I think it’s an fantastic accomplishment [to make history]”. Ironically it was the event in which Aimee Boorman, her longtime coach, initially thought Biles showed the most potential. Van Gelder was expelled from the Dutch Olympic team for breaking their rules of conduct. Joining her in the final will be another American, Laurie Hernandez.
“I’m very, very happy right now”, said Naddour, who said later he felt like he had hit the lottery.
That’s not to say she’s blind to her imperfections.
In a way, her final performance on the Olympic stage mimicked the last few years. “She was like, ‘Ugggh.’ She didn’t like it”. Her first vault, an Amanar – a round-off onto the springboard, a back handspring onto the horse, and a flip with 2½ twists – earned a 15.900, and she hit even bigger, getting 16.033, on her second vault.
Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina, 41, also tried a “produnova”, the only vault with a rating of 7, and although the public showed its appreciation for her attempt, she did not pull it off perfectly and ended up in 7th place with a score of 14,833. Paseka put up a 15.266 on her Cheng compared to Biles’ 16.033. It grew louder during the all-around final when cameras caught her quietly sitting while the rest of Team USA cheered on Biles and Aly Raisman to a one-two finish. Simone’s second vault, the Cheng, is a round-off with a half-twist onto the vault, and a one-and-a-half twisting layout off of it.
It was the USA’s 50th consecutive victory in a major worldwide FIBA event and 22nd consecutive Olympic victory.
And Biles continued the history-making streak on Sunday by becoming the first USA gymnast to win the women’s vault competition. Madison Kocian of Dallas won the silver medal in the uneven bars, behind Aliya Mustafina of Russian Federation, and Alex Naddour of Queen Creek, Arizona, got the bronze on pommel horse. Germany’s Sophie Scheder won the bronze. Mikulak has a final chance to medal in Tuesday’s high bar final.
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Mikulak said he “got pretty rattled” by the noise. “I’m going to learn from this”.
