Simone Biles added gold in the women’s vault final Sunday to her haul of Olympic gold medals so far in Rio.
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After their one-two finish Thursday, Raisman and Biles, 19, walked around the Rio Olympic Arena, as if they were one. I always tell her, don’t forget to be the best, Simone.
Don’t forget to check back over the course of the next week for additional coverage on the USA women’s gymnastics team and the various events they’ll be competing in this summer.
She launched her challenge by nailing a hard Amanar vault scoring 15.866 despite a wobbly landing to lead Raisman by 0.233.
Simone Biles has captured the attention of United States audiences after becoming the dominant force in gymnastics. So, surprisingly, is Great Britain’s. “It’s so exciting”, Biles said at her medal ceremony.
Biles was once again at her unparalleled best at the Rio Summer Games on Thursday with a winning score of 62.198 that left her a gaping two points clear of fellow American Aly Raisman, and almost four points ahead of bronze medalist Aliya Mustafina of Russian Federation.
Going last among the eight female finalists, Biles drilled her Amanar – a round off onto the block followed by 21/2 twists – and put up a 15.9 to take the lead. Biles belongs to the world now.
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”. There are only so many gold medals handed out in her sport and careers in gymnastics are usually limited to one Olympics, perhaps two at best.
Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina, bidding to become the oldest ever gymnast to win an Olympic medal at the age of 41, finished seventh out of the eight finalists after over-rotating on her Produnova. She plans to keep training through Tokyo 2020. She also dominated the rest of the field in the vault and the balance beam to capture her second gold of the Olympics. Silver and bronze went to Brazilian gymnasts in Diego Hypolito and Arthur Mariano.
Mikulak said he “got pretty rattled” by the noise.
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Biles became the fourth straight American woman to capture the all-around and fifth overall. Paseka was the bronze medalist on vault at the London Olympics in 2012. They finally have their first two golds thanks to the 23-year-old Whitlock.
