It always comes back to the numbers.
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Big cheers came soon after, because Biles was walking to the beam, where she’s turned in some very high numbers in both qualifying and in the team competition.
Simone Biles competed in her fourth event at the Olympics in Rio on Monday afternoon. Instead, it was Dutch gymnast Sanne Wevers taking gold on the balance beam.
The American’s effort saw her leapfrog into silver medal position ahead of Biles, who was made to wait for confirmation of bronze after French gymnast Marine Boyer’s enquiry was dismissed by the judges.
The anticipation was obvious inside Rio Olympic Arena, the crowd lifting the level of excitement with a burst of cheers when Biles simply stood to approach the beam.
A wobbly landing coming out of a forward front somersault had the Texan unelegantly grappling to stay on the beam. She stepped up to the beam and was ready to conquer it.
“Simone is also a human being just like all of us”, said national team coordinator Martha Karolyi.
“Yes, it was”, Karolyi said.
That much everyone knows, “Simone” and “Biles” being two of the most searched words on the Internet the past week.
Russia’s Denis Abliazin narrowly missed out on silver as he scored 15.700. I didn’t know it until watched the replay of it.
We’ll say this for Onyshko and her coach: Their relationship is a good one. She saved it, which shows fight, but that is still a full point deducted from her overall score. Her dismount was solid, although she took a small hop.
Eleftherios Petrounias of Greece has won the Olympic gold medal in men’s still rings.
“I’m so happy she could share with the world what she does in practice, and that’s exactly what she did tonight”, Biles said. “I think you guys want it more than I do because I just want to perform the routines that I’ve practiced”.
Sharing the podium with Hernandez was some consolation for Biles.
But the idea that the beam is some form of gymnastics torture, so fragile as to leave no control to the gymnast, was rejected by Biles. Laurie’s routine was also almost ideal, with her sharp poses and high difficulty level, but ultimately, a moment’s wobble was enough for the judges to deduct a fraction of a point, leaving her with a score of 15.333.
“I went all-out, but also with the thought that I would go for execution rather than just difficulty”. Every color medal is incredibly hard to achieve.
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Biles’ teammate, Laurie Hernandez, 16, won silver with a score of 15.333. Wenxiu Zhang won the silver with a throw of 76.75, which was her season best, while Sophie Hitchon took bronze, and she became the first Great Britain woman to do so. “You come in and you expect one thing and maybe if that thing doesn’t happen … you have to shed tears and kind of move on to the next thing you can accomplish”.
