Sweet taste of victory
With Biles, Manuel setting pace, city can boast of 13 medals
Brittney Griner, left, and Elena Delle Donne savor basketball gold.
RIO DE JANEIRO — Not since 1996 and 2000, fueled by one of the world’s greatest athletes and one of sport’s landmark upsets, respectively, have Houston-area athletes fared so well at the Olympic Games as at the Rio Olympics that end Sunday night.
From 4-foot-8 Simone Biles to 6-8 Brittney Griner, the dozen or so athletes who grew up in Houston or train in the city accounted for 13 medals, including nine golds, to contribute to the United States team’s haul of 116 medals entering the final day.
Front and center was the marvelous Biles, 19, of Spring, whose four gold medals — augmented with one bronze — tied the record for most golds won in a single Olympics by a female gymnast.
Of six available medal opportunities in the sport, she competed for all but one, and with her “Final Five” teammates she became the first woman based in Houston to bring back a team gold medal in gymnastics since Kerri Strug and Dominique Moceanu did so for the “Magnificent Seven” in 1996.
Like Carl Lewis, who in 1996 won his record ninth gold medal in track and field and won the long jump for the fourth straight Olympics, or Hakeem Olajuwon, who as a newly minted U.S. citizen played for USA Basketball in 1996, Biles is a singular icon, with a combination of power and finesse that made her perfectly suited for the gymnastics of today.
Appropriately, she was selected Saturday to carry the United States flag during Sunday night’s Closing Ceremony. A first for the sport
Biles, of course, was not the only Simone to strike gold in Rio. Swimmer Simone Manuel, a graduate of Fort Bend Austin who now attends Stanford, won four medals — two golds, two silvers — and by winning the 100-meter freestyle became the first AfricanAmerican woman to win an individual gold for USA Swimming.
Because of its sociological significance, Manuel’s win strikes a different chord than does Houston’s great upset champion of 2000, diver Laura Wilkinson, whose win in the 10-meter platform competition that year made her the first U.S. champion in the event since 1964.
Wilkinson did, however, continue as a mainstay of USADiving through 2008, and the national team this year won two silvers in synchronized events.
And like Wilkinson after her 2000 victory, Manuel could just be getting started in her USA Swimming career.
As Olajuwon represented Houston in 1996, Griner this year won her first gold medal in what should be a long, successful run for her with USA Basketball. She had four points and seven rebounds in Saturday’s 101-72 win over Spain for the gold medal.
Greater Houston’s fourth gold medalist was former La Porte High School state champion Kerron Clement, a two-time world champion who won his first Olympic gold medal in the men’s 400-meter hurdles. Clement, who lives in Florida but still has relatives in Houston, received another gold as part of the 1,600 relay team.
Weightlifter Sarah Robles, who trains in League City with area coach Tim Swords, won bronze in the women’s superheavyweight division for the first U.S. weightlifting medal since 2000. Not quite podium worthy
Three local athletes just missed the medals stand. Stacy Lewis of The Woodlands was tied for fourth in women’s golf, two-time gold medalist Steven Lopez of Sugar Land lost in the bronzemedal match of men’s welterweight taekwondo, and swimmer Cammile Adams of Houston and Texas A&M was fourth in the women’s 200-meter butterfly.
Athletes from elsewhere in Texas who won medals included Michelle Carter of Red Oak and the University of Texas (women’s shot put gold), Jimmy Feigen of San Antonio and Texas (swimming relay gold), Madison Kocian of Dallas (gymnastics team gold and uneven bars silver), Katie Meili of Fort Worth (swimming relay gold and bronze) and Dana Vollmer of Granbury (bronze in 100-meter butterfly, swimming relay gold and silver).
University of Texas athletes from out of state who won medals include Ryan Crouser (men’s shot put gold), Townley Haas (swimming relay gold), Joseph Schooling (swimming gold for Singapore), Clark Smith (swimming relay gold) and Ashley Spencer (bronze in 400-meter hurdles).
Several of the local athletes could be back for 2020. Biles’ plans are in the air, but Adams has expressed interest in returning to the pool next year, and Clement has said he hopes to be back.
Manuel has three years of eligibility left at Stanford, so she could be reaching the peak of her career in 2020. Glenn Eller, the 2008 gold medalist who finished back in the pack in men’s double trap shotgun this year, is a five-time Olympian but still in his 30s.