Kocian needed above a 15.900 to secure the gold and she received a 15.833, which resulted in a series of boos from the audience and a stunned look from her teammates.
Advertisement
Biles’ triumph is the first in the Olympics by an American woman on vault, and her first vault title in a major worldwide competition.
The final day of competition also sees Oleg Verniaiev – who gave Kohei Uchimura a scare in the all-around before settling for silver behind the Japanese great – bid for gold on the parallel bars and the horizontal bar.
She had knocked off the champ, the first gymnast to beat Biles at anything in Rio. On this day exactly a year ago, Hernandez won the all-around title in the junior division of the national championships.
“To get my own little medal. well, they’re big, I guess”, Hernandez said. “But one of the best, and I think she’s deserving to feel that way because just looking for the medals she achieved, the numbers”, said Mihai Brestyan, Raisman’s longtime coach.
“It’s something that you guys shove into my head, and at 19, I can’t put that much stress on myself because I am only 19”, Biles said.
United States’ Simone Biles, left, and compatriot Lauren Hernandez trains ahead of the artistic gymnastics women’s apparatus final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Monday, Aug. 15, 2016.
Rio de Janeiro (dpa) – American superstar Simone Biles missed out on a fourth Rio gold medal Monday due to a costly stumble on the balance beam while Brazil’s reigning Olympic champion Arthur Zanetti had to settle for silver on the rings. She’s commanding on floor, although she faces a similar ceiling there as Biles is favored to win gold on Tuesday. She lost her balance following a forward somersault and touching the beam with her hands reduced her performance score to 8.233 for a total of 14.733.
“I did a lot of numbers in training”, said Wevers, when she was asked if it was hard to perform the routine with all of its added complexity.
Simone Biles and Laurie Hernandez took home medals in the women’s beam finals.
No, the disappointment came from one missed skill in an otherwise lovely routine.
The Netherlands has earned the first medal of any color in women’s gymnastics thanks to Sanne Wevers, who will leave Rio with a gold medal around her neck. The two vaulters both averaged 15.449 for their two vaults, but Shirai was awarded the bronze because he had the highest score on a single vault.
It was the women’s first chance to show off their new hardware, hug their families and regroup.
Advertisement
Se Gwang Ri of North Korea picked up his country’s second gold medal in Rio in the vault.
