The team of Biles, Laurie Hernandez, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and Madison Kocian lived up to their prohibitive favorites role by putting up the highest total score in every apparatus. The 73-year-old is stepping down after the games.
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There were a few wobbles here and there, even for Simone Biles, but those imperfections could not stop the United States from blowing away the opposition to capture the Olympic women’s team title with a record margin on Tuesday.
Great performances have come to be expected from the US women’s team.
Simone Biles competes in the vault during the women’s team gymnastics final during the 2016 Summer Olympics, at the Rio Olympic Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday. This means that the five-person team of Raisman, Kocian, Douglas, Biles, and Hernandez, will, in fact, be the final team consisting of five gymnasts.
United States’ Simone Biles watches the scoreboard during the artistic gymnastics women’s team final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. The toughest competitions happen in quiet at the regular training camps Karolyi carefully oversees. The only moment of tension Tuesday came early.
Barely five minutes later, the youngest member of Team USA was all business. That was considered an advantage because the USA floor scores tend to be high, and crowd support for the floor is big.
Surprisingly the 19-year-old Biles, who is tipped to win five golds in Rio, earned the lowest mark of 12 performances for the Americans, drawing 14.800 on the asymmetric bars after hesitating for a split second midway through her routine.
This is Biles’ first Olympic Games, and she’ll have the chance to go for four more gold in various individual exercises.
Laurie Hernandez competes on the balance beam in the artistic gymnastics women’s team final at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Rio Olympic Arena on August 9, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
After one rotation, the Americans were already out in front, by 0.7 points over Russian Federation, who performed on the bars. Hernadez’s specialty is the balance beam while Kocian’s specialty is the uneven bar. It’s that ability to avoid mistakes when it counts that’s as much a testament to Karolyi’s meticulous preparation as their dynamic and unparalleled gymnastics.
While the gold was never in doubt, you wouldn’t have known about it by watching Karolyi.
Biles’ explosive tumbling passes – which included her trademark soaring double layout with a half twist at the end – had the Brazilian crowd roaring their approval. Hernandez scored a 15.233 on beam.
Dallas’ Kocian competed on the uneven bars, tying Russia’s Aliya Mustafina for a competition-best 15.933 points. The only real mystery surrounded what nickname the team would settle on before Biles stumbled upon it during a group text.
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The most dominant and talked-about member of the team is Simone Biles.
