Olympic All-Around Coronation for Simone Biles

So great were the expectations that Simone Biles was unofficially awarded the Olympic All-around gold medal nearly a year ago, after she won her third consecutive World title in dominating fashion.

Guardar

So great were the expectations that Simone Biles was unofficially awarded the Olympic All-around gold medal nearly a year ago, after she won her third consecutive World title in dominating fashion. But Thursday night in Rio, Biles had to make it happen for real. And she did: With a relaxed smile on her face and assured, almost casual performances on every apparatus, the 19-year-old flipped and twisted her way to All-Around gold with stunning ease, two days after earning her first Olympic title with the U.S. team.

Below her on the podium stood two women who between them have 11 Olympic medals: Trailing by 2.1 points, Biles's teammate Alexandra Raisman took silver, while Russia's Aliya Mustafina won her second All-around bronze.

A second gold and more to come?

Biles is the fourth consecutive American to win the supreme title in gymnastics, inheriting the crown previously worn by Carly Patterson (2004), Nastia Liukin (2008) and Gabrielle Douglas (2012).

The 19-year-old Texan, who has already won the most gold medals of any female gymnast ever at the World Championships (10), could break another record in Rio: She has qualified in first place for event finals on Vault, Balance Beam and Floor Exercise, meaning she could return home with as many as five gold medals, an unprecedented result in Women's Artistic Gymnastics.

The wheel of fortune turns for Raisman

While there was no suspense about who the winner would be, the race for silver and bronze was open. As the competition unfolded, many potential contenders, including 2014 Youth Olympic Games champion Seda Tutkhalian (RUS) and Brazilian favorite Rebecca Andrade made critical errors that doomed their hopes.

After a smooth start, Raisman finished with an exclamation point on her strongest apparatus, Floor Exercise, where she won the Olympic title four years ago. Her silver medal confirmation was not long in coming, and the moment was emotional for the 22-year-old U.S. team captain, whose 2012 All-around final ended with her on the unfortunate side of a tiebreaker. In London, Raisman finished with the exact same overall score as Aliya Mustafina, but ultimately ranked fourth behind the Russian.

The 22-year-old American now has five Olympic medals, including two won in the last three days, a winning return for a woman who took a year off after London 2012. Raisman will attempt to defend her Olympic title on Floor in the apparatus final August 16.

Mustafina savours second bronze

Four years ago, Aliya Mustafina took Olympic All-around bronze, a tremendous achievement for the 2010 World champion considering that she was returning from a knee injury sustained 16 months before the London Games. This time, a second bronze medal was the reward for four long years of perseverance at the very top of the sport. The 2012 Olympic Uneven Bars champion used her speciality to her full advantage, even leading the All-around race at the competition's halfway point.

Though not the biggest story of either Games she has taken part in, Mustafina has been one of the heroines of Rio, just as she was in London. The 21-year-old has already stood on six Olympic podiums, including Tuesday night after contributing heavily to the Russian team's silver medal performance.

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only

Guardar

Últimas Noticias

Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons

Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons

Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024

She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024

Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris

Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris

Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years

The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years

Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”

The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”