American woman’s gymnastics, led by Simone Biles, the 19-year-old gymnastics phenom from Spring, Texas, cemented their reputation as the best team in gymnastics with a gold medal performance at the Rio Olympics.
Biles reaffirmed her position as the most dominant gymnast in the world on Thursday when she won the individual all-around competition in Rio. Biles outscored every competitor by a mammoth margin of over 2 points.
Simone Biles. Image: imgur
It’s just gymnastics, but gymnastics will never be the same. Simone Biles has seen to that. Biles is the only woman to win world championships three years in a row, and has not lost a gymnastics meet since 2013. Her all-around win is a confirmation of what gymnastics fans have known for several years: She is the best in the world, and probably the best of all time.
Simone Biles. Image: imgur
Simone Biles finished first overall in the vault, balance beam and the floor exercises, leading team USA to a record-breaking win in Rio. The entire team–Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian–performed flawlessly, delivering a series of stirring, mistake-free routines, making the United states the lone country to have made the podium at the last seven Olympic games.
Simone Biles. Image: imgur
Her floor routine is jam-packed with difficulty, including a tumbling pass that bears her name, because she was the first person to perform it in an international competition. It’s two back somersaults in the stretched-out layout position, with a half turn in the second rotation, which means she lands “blind,” facing forward with no way to see the floor approaching as she speeds downward.
Simone Biles. Image: imgur
On beam, Biles performs the most difficult dismount in the world, a “full in back out,” which is a double back somersault with a full twist in the first somersault. It’s a trick many gymnasts include as one of their tumbling passes on the floor, but Biles does it off the beam ― which is only four inches wide.
The video below, posted by The New York Times, shows Simone in action.
Please SHARE if you feel proud of the American team.