With two main goals already accomplished – gold medals in both the team competition and in the individual all-around – Simone Biles turned to the vault to grab more Olympic gold Sunday.
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An Amanar is part of the Yurchenko family, and is recognized as the hardest vault performed by women. The 19-year-old won four gold and one silver in Rio, culminating her games by shattering her previous 800 m free world record time. She is the first-ever American woman to win in the Olympics on vault and win three gold medals in one Olympics in gymnastics.
As the two-time reigning world champion on beam, Biles has a history of staying steady under pressure-and strong nerves are perhaps just as important as high difficulty and flawless execution when it comes to the beam. To give you a better idea of just what a rout that was, consider that Paseka was closer to the last gymnast in the eight-woman field (0.437 points) than she was to Biles. She also becomes the first American woman to win gold on the vault. As if failing to qualify for the individual all-around finals after winning in groundbreaking fashion in 2012 and earning just the team gold weren’t enough, she was criticized at every turn in the social media spectrum so often devoid of humanity.
She stays on pace to win an unprecedented five gold medals, with balance beam Monday the most questionable. Karmakar is the first Indian female gymnast to compete in the Olympics.
When the 20-year old touched home after a scintillating anchor leg, she and teammates Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, and Dana Vollmer won Team USA’s 1,000th gold medal at a summer games since triple-jumper James Connolly claimed their first in Athens, Greece in 1896.
Elsewhere in gymnastics, Great Britain’s Max Whitlock won two gold medals with victories in the men’s floor exercise and on the pommel horse. Mustafina’s score of 15.9 was just ahead of Kocian’s 15.833.
The Stanford women have been on a tear in Rio, collecting a myriad of medals at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.
American Sam Mikulak finished eighth, his routine disrupted by an explosion from the rowdy crowd inside Rio Olympic Arena, which burst into applause when Mikulak – going last – made a mistake to assure the Brazilians of two medals.
Mikulak said he “got pretty rattled” by the noise. Alex Naddoor won the first medal for the US men, a bronze on pommel horse behind Brits Max Whitlock, who also won gold Sunday on floor exercise, and Louis Smith.
“I’m very, very happy right now”, said Naddour, who said later he felt like he had hit the lottery. Mustafina’s score of 15.900 was just a touch better than Kocian’s score of 15.833.
The hope for one last trip to the Olympic medal podium gone when she stalled early in her routine during the uneven bars final on Sunday, Gabby Douglas made a decision to take a stand of a different kind.
The U.S. faces Mexico in the final match of group play.
Mattek-Sands and Sock trailed 6-3 in the deciding super tiebreak then won six straight points.
She also said she was disappointed in her first vault.
“It means a lot [to be the first black woman to earn gold in the pool]”, Manuel said after the race. “I’m going to learn from this”.
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The red-hot USA women’s team plays Germany (11:30 a.m. ET) in the quarterfinals. India, on the other hand, has not won a single medal yet in Rio. Whitlock is the reigning world champion on pommel horse, and is riding high after winning an all-around bronze medal a few days ago.
