For a fraction of the competition, fans saw something very rare: Simone Biles in second place. Perhaps by beginning the conversation with talk about the best in history.
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Her triumph makes her the fourth American in succession to win the title – following the successes of Carly Patterson, Nastia Liukin and Gabby Douglas – which is the longest winning streak by a country in the Olympic discipline.
How much do you want to bet that Simone will be the most popular baby name in 2017?
“Simone is so good that the Olympics have become boring”, Dave Lease, the editor of TSL, a figure skating and gymnastics news website, told me.
Biles’s adoptive mother is the voice-over talent who narrates the early beginnings of her daughter as gymnast, such as the young Simone flipping all over the house.
A three-time world champion in the all-around and a four-time USA all-around champion, Biles has won 14 world medals (10 gold, two silver, two bronze), the most ever for a US female gymnast.
Douglas, 20, failed to make the cut to defend her title despite finishing third in qualifiers behind Biles and Raisman.
Engleder held her nerve to win in the 50m 3 Positions shooting event, just ahead of Chinese duo Zhang Binbin and 2008 champion Du Li.
Her brothers chose a different yet just as competitive sport: basketball.
No one goes in thinking they can beat Simone, teammate Aly Raisman said after winning the all around silver.
Biles was once again at her unparalleled best at the Rio Summer Games on Thursday with a winning score of 62.198 that left her a gaping two points clear of fellow American Aly Raisman, and almost four points ahead of bronze medalist Aliya Mustafina of Russian Federation.
“I made myself a little angry before beam”, Raisman said.
And despite a disappointing worlds in October the reigning Olympic floor champion was the only gymnast to hit all her routines at the U.S. championships and trials. “Everyone is here and every time she comes up everyone gets quiet and cheers”.
It was in 2013 when Biles won at the U.S. National Gymnastics Championships.
But Bostonian Raisman, known as the “Grandma” of the team at 22 years, has experience on her side in her second Olympics. That’s why, as Nancy Armour wrote, she cemented herself as the greatest gymnast ever. She literally has a tumbling move named after her because no one else can do it.
She really ranks at the top, said Martha Karolyi, the national team coordinator who helped Nadia Comaneci score a flawless 10 in the 1976 games as a coach in Romania.
Engleder’s win is the first Olympic gold won by a German shooter since Silvia Sperber in Seoul, 1988 and Engleder was delighted with the victory: “It is the crowning moment of my career”, she said afterwards.
There were no major bobbles on Biles’s part, and she scored a 14.966 (watch Biles’s bar routine at NBC).
That’s what I call this year’s Women’s Olympic Gymnastics Team and for more reasons than one.
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Biles said: “Aimee and Aly told me I’d done it and when that hits you, you can’t stop the emotions”. She said she picked the university for its values.
