For Douglas, team finals – where the Americans can have a bad day and still win gold – await, and she’ll have uneven bar finals later in the week. It will be which teams get silver and bronze behind them. Second-place team China sat almost 10 points behind the US with a score of 175.279. With the team and all-around golds practically assured, Biles is on track to be the first female gymnast to ever win five gold medals in one Olympics. It’s not a loss by any means, however; according to NBC, all three gymnasts were at least one full point ahead of the fourth-place finisher.
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Russia, Great Britain and Brazil rounded out the top five.
In an action-packed Sunday afternoon in Rio de Janeiro, the United States dominated the qualifying stage of the women’s gymnastics event.
And just like that, the young women in the glittery red-and-blue leotards whom national team coordinator Martha Karolyi has molded into a global force relaxed.
The 20-year-old gymnast insists that she wasn’t out to prove haters wrong. The margin for error will be thinner in the three-up, three-count final.
Hernandez was not in contention for an all-around spot despite having finished second to Biles at trials.
Two members of the Fierce Five are back.
But due to the “two-per-country” rule, returning champ and 2012 all-around gold medalist Gabby Douglas will not be allowed to advance and defend her title, even though she finished with the third highest score overall.
Their victory also means that their US women’s gymnastics teammateGabby Douglas will not be competing in the all-around, since only two athletes per country are allowed to compete.
Douglas, the defending Olympic champion, is out of luck, even if she handled things like a champ, telling the media, “Always be grateful”.
“I think all of our hard work was just to show the world”, said Madison Kocian, who put up the top score on uneven bars.
“It’s really humbling. I literally watch her and I’m just in awe”.
“I just wanted to go out there and believe in my abilities and use the talent that I was given”, Douglas said.
“I feel sad for Laurie and Gabby because they’re also the best all-arounders in the world”, Raisman said.
Russian gymnastics star Aliya Mustafina said in the weeks leading up to the Olympics the star-laden USA team is pretty much unstoppable. In addition to Douglas, Kocian was the top qualifier to the uneven bar final, Raisman earned a spot in the floor exercise final, and Hernandez will be in the beam final.
Given a chance following Olympic preliminaries on Sunday to take it back, Mustafina instead doubled down.
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The other teams in the final probably, if they’re being honest, know they’re competing for second or third place.
