Simone is best known for her consecutive National and World championship titles.
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On Sunday, Biles won her fourth consecutive national title at the P&G Championships in St. Louis, MO. “I’m honored to tie with her”.
Added together, her 62.900 all-around score is just shy of the 63.000 she earned on day two of the 2015 P&G Championships.
“It was a good day”, Biles said after a stellar performance at the U.S. gymnastics championships.
The five-woman Olympic team will be selected in San Jose, California, in two weeks.
The top USA women will next compete at the Olympic Trials on July 8 and 10 in San Jose, Calif. The second place finisher, Aly Raisman, was 3.9 points behind.
“I guess there’s really no other steps besides trials and making the team”, Biles said. “We’re all so strong and powerful on the floor and starting gives you the rhythm for the rest of the meet”. Douglas also qualified for the Olympic Trials and is trying to make back-to-back Olympic appearances. Also giving chase was Laurie Hernandez, last year’s junior champ who national team coordinator Martha Karolyi has high hopes for. After moving on to floor exercise, she scored a total of 16.1, taking first on floor as well.
Hernandez applied pressure throughout, right through her final performance on the floor, which drew a score of 14.80 and eight hand claps from Karolyi. She has already won individual titles on floor and beam and she has added a hard second vault, a Cheng Fei (round-off, half twist onto the horse, followed by a laid-out back flip with 1 1/2 twists) to her arsenal.
Douglas, trying to become the first gymnast in almost 50 years to repeat as Olympic champion, admitted she needed to improve after a sloppy performance on Friday. “So you need to focus on the now and I think I’ve done just that and it’s working perfectly”. “I think it’s OK to be nervous like I was (Friday), but at the same time, if I make a mistake, I’m not gonna be so mad at myself”. “I can’t say I definitely saw this coming after the last couple of weeks we’ve had”.
However, Biles continued to look unbeatable.
But the sport has grown and changed since Comaneci first leaped onto the world stage.
Simone Biles competes in the vault during the US women’s gymnastics championships, Friday, June 24, 2016, in St. Louis.
Given the show she put on Friday, there’s no reason to think she won’t be. “It’s nearly a certainty”. This team will be at least as good as that one, with the potential to have all 12 routines in the Olympic team finals with start values or difficulty scores of 6.0 and higher. She was rewarded 16.050 on the floor exercise. There never seems to be for Biles, whose three-year reign seems poised to continue unabated through the biggest summer of her life and beyond. Her score of 15.7 is a significant step up from the 15.388 she posted at world championships last fall, an event she won easily.
Douglas left plenty of room for improvement, finishing no better than fifth in any event.
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“Absolutely. She’s got much more”, Haney said. “I could have done better. Or be bold and hit this beam routine like I’ve been doing in training”. Names like Alyssa Baumann, Ashton Locklear, Maggie Nichols, Ragan Smith and MyKayla Skinner should all be in consideration.
