Simone Biles is immune to all of it.
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“It never gets old watching her“, Raisman said.
Comaneci, the 1976 Montreal gold medallist and first to earn a ideal 10.0 score, was like Biles coached by Romanian Martha Karolyi, who defected to the United States in 1981. Simone Manuel became the first African-American woman to win an individual gold when she tied Canada’s Penny Oleksiak for first in the 100-meter freestyle. Those really stand out for me. If she wins all three, she will become the first gymnast ever to win five goals in the same Olympics.
Biles, 19, is the Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, Muhammad Ali, Wayne Gretzky, Jesse Owens of her sport.
Nevertheless, Biles regained the advantage with a score of 15.433 on beam, before she ended with her best tally, 15.933, on the floor. It’s the fourth consecutive Olympics where he’s won that event.
Biles will be 23 by the time the 2020 Olympics kick off in Tokyo, but Raisman is showing at the age of 22 that medals can be won in bunches even beyond teen-age years.
It would be incredible and I … well, that’s insane to think about. I just have to stay focused when I go into my event finals..
She’s so good that Raisman admitted, “I wasn’t reaching to get a gold”.
Golf will return to the Olympics for the first time since the 1904 St. Louis Games, when 46-year-old insurance salesman George Seymour Lyon of Canada won the title just eight years after first picking up a golf club.
Teammate Aly Raisman, who took silver, knew Biles would take the title by a comfortable margin. Vault is a strength for Raisman and Biles, and a weak one for Mustafina.
Raisman proved that she belonged by tying for third with Russian gymnast Aliya Mustafina with a score of 59.566. Biles’ Friday selfie was short on words, but said everything it needed to. I just do my gymnastics.. The gymnast pulled out her signature move on the floor exercise.
For the second competition in a row – on this occasion the individual all-around – she was in a class of her own leading to the septuagenarian former coach of Nadia Comaneci and the American “magnificent seven” in 1996 to suggest the sport has never seen anyone.
Biles actually scored higher on the uneven bars during the all-around competition than when she competed in the team final, earning a 14.96.
Karolyi called Biles a “force of nature”.
As far as Biles was concerned, she is incomparable. “I realized I had finally done it, like, I won”. That, combined with the remarkable performance of Biles, will likely and hopefully help balance the numbers. It was meant as a joke.
“I don’t think I was ever the face of gymnastics”. Manuel trains as hard as any world-class swimmer, yet spoke of the discomfort at the implied perception that acknowledging her groundbreaking achievement also singled her out.
“Well, obviously, yes!” she said with emphasis, as if to say, “Duh!” She was crying as she saluted the judges. “I knew going into tonight I was going to get the silver medal because I was going to hit four events”.
If she leaves it for others to decide, Biles wins in a landslide.
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It’s an important distinction for a young woman who is widely considered the best gymnast in the world.
