But Team USA’s coaches aren’t the only ones who will be cheering them on to victory during the team final – the ladies have already racked up quite a few famous fans. Consider this: The margin between the US and the Chinese in qualifiers was greater than the margin between China and 12th-place Belgium.
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The US team, also comprising Lauren Hernandez, Alexandra Raisman, Gabrielle Douglas and Madison Kocian, took gold with a score of 184.897, with Russian Federation taking silver and China bronze. The women are a round ahead, and players reaching the quarterfinals included Madison Keys of the US, Johanna Konta of Britain and Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic.
The 200 meter individual semis are at 11:29 p.m. Heats start earlier in the day, at 2:09 p.m. Lochte holds the world record, which he set in 2011, and Phelps has the Olympic record, set in 2008 (Beijing). Since 1976, no country has won five consecutive team titles at major global competitions. That’s a 35 percent drop compared to the 40.7 million USA viewers who watched the opening of the London Games four years ago – although NBC is pointing to more time-shifted viewing and streaming as factors in the decrease. They’re waiting for the two other teams to finish their turns on the apparatus.
Biles, who’s poised to win five gold medals in Rio, has a signature move in her floor routine.
It did. Two days after they had gone 16-for-16 on routines in the preliminary round, they started off with three monster vaults, first from 16-year-old Hernandez, who delivered a 15.100.
“No number of great performances is going to solve it-what will solve this problem is consistent moves in the right direction; transparency by the International Olympic Committee; transparency by WADA [the world anti-doping agency]; transparency by CAS [the Court of Arbitration for Sport] and in the consistent making of the right decisions and the right moves instead of just lip-service that doping will not be tolerated”, he said.
“I would love them to say that an athlete with even only one ban or one doping offence should miss an Olympics”, the 1996 Olympics 400m and 200m champion added.
From the very beginning of the competition, Biles did nothing but prove once again to everyone that she is indeed the best gymnast that the world has to offer, and there’s no doubt that she will continue doing that in her future endeavors beyond these Olympics.
On Sunday, the USA had the top three all-around finishers. That didn’t mean it couldn’t be the flawless ending for what had been an nearly ideal two days of competition, the crowd clapping in unison along with Hernandez’s music, then chanting “U-S-A!” after Raisman hit – gloriously – sticking her final tumbling pass. It will be Raisman’s second appearance in an Olympic individual all-around final; she finished fourth in London. That means Douglas, the reigning Olympic all-around champion, has been left out for Thursday.
The United States women’s gymnastics team put a hefty beat down on the rest of the world, flipping and twisting and turning their way to history with a dominant gold medal in the team event on Tuesday night. “I wanted to go out there and defend my title, but it is what it is. I’m still rejoicing. I’m pretty pleased with everything overall because there’s nothing to be ashamed about”.
Watch the Daily Dismount to hear Olympians Courtney Kupets Carter and Jonathan Horton recap all the action of today’s team final. They won the world championships a year ago in Glasgow and finished second to China in both the 2014 worlds and the 2012 Olympics in London.
US gymnasts, from left to right, Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and Lauren Hernandez rest during the artistic gymnastics women’s team final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday.
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Now in addition to the Magnificent Seven and the Fierce Five, we have the Final Five.
