In 2011, Jordyn Wieber won the World Championships in the All-Around but finished behind Douglas and Raisman at the Olympic qualification round and was unable to participate in the final.
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That means Douglas will not have the chance to defend the gold medal she won at the all around women’s gymnastics event at the 2012 London Games.
Raisman, a three-time Olympic medalist four years ago, grabbed the second spot in the individual all-around for the Americans by edging reigning Olympic champion Gabby Douglas thanks in part to what Raisman called “the best bar routine of my life”.
All five members of the team advanced to individual event finals: Biles in vault, Biles and Raisman in floor, Biles and Laurie Hernandez in beam and Douglas and Madison Kocian in uneven bars.
No less than Mary Lou Retton, the original America’s sweetheart, has called Biles, victor of 10 World Championship gold medals including the last three all-around titles, the greatest gymnast she has ever seen. China finished in a distant second with 175.279, while Russian Federation came in third.
“I would have loved to go out there and defend my title, but I’m not disappointed”, Douglas told reporters.
And she has received high praise from another gymnastics icon: Mary Lou Retton, who was the first American to win all-around gold at the Olympics in 1984.
Douglas led off, finishing with a 14.833 score for 60.131 total points.
“I think the two-per-country rule is the dumbest thing ever”. Biles has won 14 world medals (10 gold, two silver, two bronze), the most for a USA female gymnast.
“I just wanted to enjoy the moment, ‘” Douglas said.
Though Douglas had a great competition, she simply didn’t have enough difficulty in her routines to keep up with Raisman, who had been beating her throughout 2016. “Ellie’s a fighter for coming back”, summed up elder sister Becky, who earned the team’s highest score of 15.233 on the asymmetric bars.
Raisman narrowly edged out Douglas for that honor on Sunday.
“I’m sure she thinks they’re really stupid”, Boorman said.
She completed the beam without a hitch before watching Raisman do the same. She’s been bolstered by the encouragement of Karolyi for years.
“I’m happy you’re having fun but remember you have to compete”, Raisman recalled Karolyi telling her. “I know our decision was very much questioned”.
“I would have loved to go out there and defend my title, but right now I’m just rejoicing and so far this has just been an wonderful experience”, she said. It will be which teams get silver and bronze behind them.
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“It’s going to be really hard to compete against the American team”, Mustafina said through a translator after the Russians survived a sometimes shaky qualifying session.
