Karmakar is also the first ever gymnast from India to qualify in the Women’s vault finals.
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Come Tuesday night, the USA women will win their second consecutive Olympic title. NBC has done a fantastic job with their prime time broadcasts so far, and Tim Daggett and Nastia Liukin are an exceptional commentating team that is informative and experienced.
If you aren’t watching the USA Women’s Gymnastics team in the Olympics then you’re either way out of the loop, or you just really hate winning.
Raisman has been vocal that her comeback was, in large part, motivated by her desire to get the all-around medal she was denied back in 2012.
In short, this is the team to beat. All three gymnasts broke 60 and were at least one point ahead of the fourth-place finisher, according to NBC Olympics.
The U.S. women did what was expected of them in the all-around final, hitting all 16 routines easily, making no major mistakes and making it look fun.
As usual, Team USA was led Sunday by Biles, who is right on target to win five gold medals.
Laurie Hernandez, who made the team as its youngest member at 16, will do vault, balance beam and floor. She’s the favorite to win all of them, including team gold on Tuesday. Hernandez said. “Our team is made up of very awesome talented girls and we all work hard in the gym”. The only reason she doesn’t have a ton of Olympic gold medals is that this is the first year she’s been old enough to compete on the Olympic team. Simone Biles took a small hop on the landing of her first vault.
33m star Flavia Saraiva, qualifying for the all-around and the beam finals with Rebeca Andrade just behind the U.S. trio in the all-around.
Despite the fierce competition with one another for gold, the team supports each other. She finished third to Biles and Raisman among all competitors but will not advance to the individual all-around final later this week because of Olympic rules that limit each country to two competitors. Mary Lou Retton was 16 when she became the first United States woman to win a gold medal in the individual Olympic all-around in 1984.
Gabby Douglas will not be defending her Olympic all-around title after a shocking elimination on Sunday.
But perhaps the most exciting part of the session was the showdown between reigning Olympic all-around champion Gabby Douglas and 2012 floor gold medalist Aly Raisman, who were both vying for the second US all-around spot in the final.
“I just wanted to go out there and believe in my abilities and use the talent that I was given”, Douglas said.
“I would have loved to go out there and defend my title, but right now I’m just rejoicing and so far this has just been an incredible experience”, she said. “I’m still rejoicing. I’m pretty pleased with everything overall because there’s nothing to be ashamed about”. Biles is favored to take home the gold in every event, as well as the team competition.
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“I think Gabby just proved that she has a place on this team”, Karolyi said after Sunday’s performance.
