US gymnastics team much more than Biles

DOHA, Qatar — There can only be one Simone Biles.

As dominant as the greatest gymnast of her and every other generation is, her scores can only be counted once in the unforgiving three-up, three-count team format for Tuesday’s team finals. If the Americans are going to maintain their stranglehold on the top of the podium, someone besides Biles is going to have to put up some big numbers.

Fortunately for the United States, and unfortunately for the rest of the world, the Americans have no shortage of women who are up to the task.

“They are athletes. They’re competitive,” national team coordinator Tom Forster said after qualifying. “Even though the whole thing is ‘work together as a team,’ when they do well together, individually they’re also doing well, and they all know that.”

The Americans finished qualifying with 174.429 points, which was almost nine points ahead of Russia. That’s not just a cushion; that’s a rout, with the Russians closer to 12th-place Italy than to the Americans.

Now granted, Biles posted a 60.965 that included the top score of the meet on vault, floor exercise and balance beam. But even if you take her out of the equation, the Americans still would have been comfortably in front.

In qualifying, four gymnasts compete on each event and the lowest score is dropped. If you replace Biles’ score on every event with the mark the Americans dropped, they would have finished with 168.397 points. That still would have put them 2.9 points ahead of Russia.

Not to overstate the obvious, but in a sport where the difference between gold and silver is often tenths or even hundredths of a point, that’s still not close.

“We all have different qualities that we can bring to the team,” Riley McCusker said. “We can all shine in different places.”

It helps that the Americans also have Morgan Hurd, the reigning world champion. (Biles took a year off after the Rio Olympics and didn’t return to the gym until November.) Hurd was second to Biles in all-around qualifying, and her 56.645 was actually higher than what she scored last year to win the world title.

Hurd also finished in the top five on floor exercise and uneven bars and was in the top 10 on balance beam.

But just as impressive was Kara Eaker. This is the 15-year-old’s first world championships, and she’s here for one event and one event only, balance beam. No pressure there or anything.

Yet Eaker delivered, her 14.466 second only to Biles on beam.

Grace McCallum, also making her world debut, had the seventh-best score on floor exercise but missed the event final because of the two-per-country rule.

“It’s really exciting, especially to see these rookies do that well on such a big stage,” Biles said. “It’s very promising for Team USA.”

The United States has won every world and Olympic title since 2011 and also has produced the last four Olympic all-around champions.

The Americans might not talk about the lofty standards set by those previous teams, but they’re very well aware of them.

And no one wants to be part of the squad that breaks with tradition.

“There’s clearly a lot of pressure there. How many world championships has the U.S. won?” Hurd asked. “We have to keep (our spot on) the pedestal.”

Biles makes that a heck of a lot easier. No dynasty has ever been built on assumptions or even one person, though, and the Americans need only look at Romania to be reminded of that.

Romania won five consecutive world titles from 1994 to 2001, as well as Olympic gold in 2000 and 2004. But it has become a shell of its former self, failing to even make the eight-team final here.

“Simone, that’s a nice buffer for sure. We know that,” Forster said. “But these girls aren’t trying less because of it. They’re not.”

If anything, Biles’ return has made her fellow Americans work even harder. They want to establish reputations of their own, not just those of Biles’ sidekicks.

“You want kids that care about that. You want them to be driven to try and get into finals. Because then they work harder and they just have a different mind-set about it,” Forster said. “It is important because girls have that confidence to say, ‘I want the finals. I don’t want Simone to be the only one.’

“That’s what you want from athletes.”

Biles is a singular talent, able to do things no other gymnast can. But even she can’t win a team title by herself.

FRANCOIS NEL/GETTY IMAGES Simone Biles is congratulated by U.S. teammates after competing in the balance beam qualification Saturday, one day after going to a hospital and learning she had a kidney stone.