Simone captures gold No. 3 in style
RIO DE JANEIRO—Simone Biles spent Sunday morning in the warm-up gym thinking not of history but perfection.
When it didn’t happen—and really, it never does in gymnastics anymore—the 19-year-old star settled for a pretty sweet consolation prize: a third gold medal in Rio.
Twisting and flipping through the air with explosive precision, Biles easily captured gold in the women’s vault final on Sunday. Her two-vault average of 15.966 was more than .7 better than silver medalist Maria Paseka of Russia and bronze medalist Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland. The margin between first and second was greater than second and eighth, a symbol of the canyon Biles created between herself and her peers.
Biles’ triumph is the first in the Olympics by an American woman on vault, and her first vault title in a major international competition. It’s heady territory, though Biles wasn’t quite so thrilled when her feet moved just a touch on the landing of her Amanar.
“I just wanted to stick a vault so badly here and it didn’t happen,” Biles said. “I can be disappointed about that but I can’t be disappointed with the gold.”
Good idea considering there may be more on the way. Biles is in the balance beam final on Monday and the floor exercise final on Tuesday, events in which she happens to be the reigning world champion. The chance of her leaving Rio going an unprecedented 5-for-5 is looking more inevitable than impossible.
Not that Biles is getting ahead of herself. While she’s aware of her growing celebrity, Biles and coach Aimee Boorman are trying to remain in the comfortable rhythm Biles and the rest of her “Final Five” teammates follow during any other meet. It wasn’t hard to keep Biles engaged heading into the event which Boorman thought would be Biles’ best when she reached the elite level in 2013.