Here at Rio Olympic Arena on Tuesday, the Final Five – a name the team chose – smiled and celebrated as the final score came in and sealed their victory.
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Chen Ruolin and Liu Huixia didn’t seem to care what color of water they were hitting.
The Americans’ final score was 184.897 points giving them a huge winning margin over Russian Federation on 176.688.
The U.S.’ final gap over runner-up Russian Federation (176.688) also exceeded the 2012 team’s 5.056 margin of victory.
It was the largest margin of victory in an Olympic women’s team final since the Soviet Union – remember when we used to call it that? Simon Biles will be competing along with teammate Aly Raisman. “It’s very hard to make Martha cry”.
Since arriving on the scene in 2013, Biles has been dominant. It was so cute. We just improve the quality and everybody needs to follow us.
Competition will come from perennial powerhouse Russian Federation and Japan.
Karolyi, 73, has built the United States into a powerhouse and is retiring after these Olympics. Aliya Mustafina put up a 15.933 on the bars, a discipline she won gold at in London, before matching Biles’ score on the vault. Thus, this will be the last US team to win Olympic gold with a five-member team.
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As in 2012, silver went to Russian Federation, while China returned to the podium in third having last appeared on the top step in 2008.
Finally, floor, again with Hernandez, Raisman and Biles. “Still, I don’t believe it”. Afterward, a tearful Szogedi said she was “gutted”. One of the changes was decreasing the size of each team from five to four starting with the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
The American women were only competing against themselves. All three scores count, so every fall, stumble or bumble is costly.
Among other ways she expresses her Jewish heritage, Raisman won gold in the floor exercise in London performed to the Hebrew folk song “Hava Nagila” and later paid homage to the 11 Israeli Olympians who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Games.
With it, the American seized the lead after the first of four events. Unlike the other seven, the Americans didn’t slip off uneven bars.
At 4 feet 8, Biles isn’t ideally suited to the uneven bars, but she was solid.
Simon Biles, admired in her inherent talent as a gymnast, is now also a record holder as the first African-American to hold the all-around the world champion title and the first of her gender to hold all-around titles in succession. She delivered beautifully, getting great extension on a hard routine. And the USA won the finals by eight points.
With vault, beam, and floor routines as the highlight of her performance, the United States team has had a great start until the end where the team won overall, 8 points ahead of the competition. Only after Biles’ score was posted – one that served as an exclamation point on two hours of almost flawless gymnastics – did the architect of a dynasty relax.
The result was really not in doubt after the opening rotation for the US, the vault, where Simone Biles followed up Aly Raisman’s 15.833 mark with a performance that earned a 15.933. Hernandez went first. The crowd loved her music; they loved her, as she pranced and danced about with the frivolity of a child showing off in the backyard, peppering the routine with impressive tumbling.
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Biles’ signature event is the floor routine, a display of her faultless execution, and athleticism. She earned a modest 15.366. She does it because she loves us. Her tumbling drew audible gasps and squeals, as her compact body flipped through the air, weightless as a feather. Her final tumbling pass ends with her bouncing up from a split-second’s plop on the mat.
