In 2013, she shined bright with all-around gold at the U.S P&G Championship and became the first African American Woman to win the all-around gold medal at the World Championship.
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Simone Biles took home her third Olympic gold medal at the Rio Olympics on Sunday, August 14, for the vault event, just one week after making headlines for two huge wins. Raisman wrote on Instagram that her famously-stressed out parents can finally relax now as her only remaining event is the floor exercise final-where she’s the defending Olympic champion.
While the day may belong to Whitlock, the games belong to Biles.
Russia’s Maria Paseka finished second with 15.253 and Sweden’s Giulia Steingruber took the bronze with 15.216.
NADDOUR’S REDEMPTION: Alex Naddour became the first American since 1984 to earn a medal on pommel horse when he came in a close third behind Smith on pommel horse.
Many had predicted Simone Biles would dominate the women’s gymnastics in Brazil and the 19-year-old has not disappointed.
“Felt good, physically prepared for this”, Mikulak said.
Rose, the world number 12, wrote his name into the history books earlier in the tournament after carding the first ever hole-in-one in Olympic history. 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”.
She’s the most searched for gymnast on Google.
Coming in fourth in the event was India’s Dipa Karmakar, who – in a daring move – executed the most hard type of vault known as the “Produnova”, which requires two front flips is seldom tried, but ended up with a score of 15,066.
Though the medals and the perks that come with them – tweets from celebrity crush Zac Efron, a vacation courtesy of the Belize tourism folks, her own side of a cereal box – are nice, Biles isn’t being clichéd when she says it’s the performance that matters most. Her score was the highest of the group: 16.033. Oksana Chusovitinas seventh trip to the Olympics ended with a seventh-place finish for the 41-year-old from Uzbekistan. Karmakar, the first Indian gymnast to compete in a final at the Olympics, finished fourth by just 0.150. “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”. Chusovitina said afterward she’s already planning to train all the way to the 2020 games in Tokyo.
She nearly certainly wouldn’t be showing off a Produnova there. But she has consistently declined the Produnova’s advances and reiterated that stance on Sunday. Turns out, it was more like see you next time.. But not even Biles, who may be the greatest women’s gymnast of all time, wanted to make it a regular part of her routine.
She was proven right Sunday.
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Paseka, the 2015 world champion on vault, earned a score of 15.253.
