That’s a lot of firsts and superlatives; many people now call her the best gymnast of all time.
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There were tears all round as the tiny 19-year-old Texan crushed her rivals with a powerful display of acrobatics and tumbling which kept the all-around title in U.S. hands for a fourth straight Olympics.
United States’ Simone Biles performs on the vault during the artistic gymnastics women’s apparatus final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016.
The 1.45m (4ft 9ins) Texan, competing in her first Olympics, had already helped the U.S. women to a second straight team gold.
No female gymnast has ever won five gold medals in one Olympics, so Biles could make history even before she leaves Rio.
Simones have been dominating the 2016 Olympics thus far, sparking the selfie to end all Olympic selfies.
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. “It’s an awesome accomplishment”.
Major feats like this and countless others have earned her name to be engraved alongside some of the world’s most legendary athletes. She’s going to continue to do well at these Olympics.
Given that she is now 19 one can not be certain that we’ll see her at the next Olympics, given that 23 is pretty much over the hill when it comes to gymnastics, but whether she turns up or not she seems to have GOAT locked down.
Douglas said her teammates “did an unbelievable job”.
“Every emotion hit me at once so I was just kind of a train wreck”, Biles told reporters. “And She said “me too”. In training, she was seen attempting the triple-twisting Yurchenko, a more hard version of the Amanar vault made famous by McKayla Maroney. “She has very good (start values), her jumps are very good, and she is always stable”. “She was like, ‘Ugggh.’ She didn’t like it”. She is the reigning world champion on both events.
Many have taken to Twitter to celebrate the historic gold medals, including Simone herself.
Check out her annoyed expression after her first vault, the Amanar. Chusovitina said afterward she’s already planning to train all the way to the 2020 games in Tokyo. Aliya Mustafina took the gold and Sophie Scheder of Germany won bronze in the event.
As the only gymnast competing in all four events for the powerhouse U.S. Women’s Gymnastics team officially nicknamed the “Final Five”, the 19-year-old Biles has displayed the utmost confidence, dynamism and skill. The gold also gives Biles 17 world championship or Olympic medals, the most ever by an American woman.
Taking the bronze medal was Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland, with 15,216 points.
Whitlock became the first gymnast from Great Britain to win Olympic gold by edging Brazil’s Diego Hypolito in the men’s floor exercise final.
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The raucous crowd was firmly behind the Brazilians, so much so that they cheered loudly as Mikulak stepped out of bounds and had some landing bounces that dropped him to eighth and ensured a medal for the Brazilians. Mikulak has a final chance to medal in Tuesday’s high bar final. “I’m going to learn from this”.
