Now she’s owning the medal podium. “‘I think I was more proud of Aly getting silver than me gold, ‘” Biles’ quote read.
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Her score on that vault, 16.033, was the best of the competition.
Simone Biles took home her third Olympic gold medal at the Rio Olympics on Sunday, August 14, for the vault event, just one week after making headlines for two huge wins. The American teenager beat world champion Maria Paseka of Russian Federation with a score of 15.966 from her two vaults.
Before Sunday, the vault has been the only individual apparatus title to elude Biles at the world level.
Biles, competing in the vault-apparatus final, collected her third gold, soaring off the vault horse and landing in the history book with a score of 15.066, which was.700 better than silver medalist Maria Paseka of Russian Federation – a staggering gap by gymnastics standards. “I wasn’t feeling it”, Biles said. I’m sure she could feel the love from the arena for all she’s brought to the sport. “But then, after worlds, it was all I put my focus into”. She later picked up silver, finishing second behind Biles, in the women’s individual all-round gymnastics event on Thursday (11Aug16).
The implications have started to sink in for Biles here.
Grinning ear-to-ear and high-fiving her coach Aimee Boorman, the remarkable 19-year-old knew that her bid for a record five golds remains squarely on track.
“Sometimes if I’m lying in bed. It’s something that I wanted so badly”, she said. “I woke up the other morning and she (teammate Laurie Hernandez) was like, ‘Hey Simone you did it.’ I was like, ‘Oh I guess I did it'”.
“She can do it better”, Boorman said.
– The U.S. men’s and women’s basketball teams remain unbeaten at Rio.
Madison Kocian, who earned the highest score in the qualifiers for the uneven bars, completed the finals with a silver medal.
Naddour’s performance ended a 32-year medal drought on the pommel horse for the United States.
Whitlock became the first gymnast from Great Britain to win Olympic gold by edging Brazil’s Diego Hypolito in the men’s floor exercise final.
It also was Biles’ 17th world or Olympic medal, surpassing the US record held by Shannon Miller (seven Olympic medals, nine world medals).
American Sam Mikulak finished eighth, his routine disrupted by an explosion from the rowdy crowd inside Rio Olympic Arena, which burst into applause when Mikulak – going last – made a mistake to assure the Brazilians of two medals.
A gymnast who did not win a medal got one of the loudest cheers of the day. Watch a video of both Biles’ and Cheng Fei performing the Cheng below. He washed his uniform in baby detergent so he would be reminded of his infant daughter Lilah.
“I’m very, very happy right now”, said Naddour, who said later he felt like he had hit the lottery.
For the second consecutive Olympic Games, Russia’s Aliya Mustafina captured the women’s asymmetric bars gold with a routine full of grace and power.
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In the Olympics vault final, gymnasts must compete two vaults. Kocian scored a 15.833, enough to take silver, with Sophie Scheder of Germany won the bronze with a 15.566.
