Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina acknowledges the audience after her routine on the balance beam during the artistic gymnastics women’s qualification at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016.
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Led by veteran Olympian Aly Raisman, this USA squad is arguably the best in history, with world champion Simone Biles, Olympic medalist Gabby Douglas, Madison Kocian and Laurie Hernandez.
Simone, Aly, Gabby, Laurie, and Madison will compete on Tuesday in the team final, before the All-Around on Thursday.
“I think that’s really special”, said Biles, the three-time world champion who is going to need an armored auto to get all her bling home after posting the top scores on vault, floor exercise and balance beam. Raisman won a gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics in the floor competition, performing a routine to “Hava Nagila”.
The 35-year-old reality star, excited to root on Team USA in the Olympics, revealed that her 3-year-old daughter, North, is now taking gymnastics classes. “@Kim Kardashian Thank You So Much!” she tweeted back.
All five women earned a spot in either the all-around or event finals, or in the case of Biles and Raisman, both.
In 1984, Mary Lou Retton became the first female gymnast outside of Eastern Europe to win the Olympic all-around title at the Los Angeles Olympics.
“Everyone in the village is so tall”, Biles said. The gym sent home a letter to Biles’ family requesting she join tumbling or gymnastics. That top spot guaranteed the 4-foot-9-inch 19-year-old an automatic berth on the Olympic team.
“Just being named to the team, I’m just so honored and really grateful”, Douglas said.
She can literally do whatever she feels like doing. Simone Biles is the gold favorite for Rio, so it’s safe to say she will fill one of those slots. The chance of anyone overcoming it is akin to the odds of Michael Jordan and the original “Dream Team” falling in Barcelona in 1992.
“I don’t really view myself as the world’s best or anything like that”, Biles said in the spring. “If I thought of gymnastics as a job, it would put too much stress on me”, she told Teen Vogue.
Just because a gymnast made it to the Olympics doesn’t mean that they will actually compete for a medal.
“I honestly feel like it’s no extra pressure”, USA national team coordinator Martha Karolyi said. “I would technically fail in [the public school system] for how many days I’ve missed for competitions, “she told Refinery29”. Hernandez finished second in the all-around at trials, with Raisman right behind her in third. Even while the commentators are talking about how she’s out of bounds.
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“When they called my name, it kind of felt like I got hit in the head with a hammer”, Hernandez said.
