Superstar Simone soars far above all her rivals
RIO DE JANEIRO — If there’s a quibble to make with Simone Biles, it’s that she competes with such joy and such weightless effervescence that she does herself a disservice, in a way, by making gymnastics look so easy.
You won’t catch her grimacing. She will never double over with exhaustion. For Biles, flipping through the air is such fun that no theatrics are needed.
At Rio Olympic Arena Thursday, Biles invited a raucous crowd and millions of viewers at home to her Olympic party, which concluded with a floor exercise routine that exploded with high-flying acrobatics.
After briefly ceding the lead midway through the competition on her weakest event, the uneven bars, Biles charged back to claim Olympic all-around gold, her sport’s most-coveted prize, by more than two points over her U.S. teammate and role model Aly Raisman, who took silver. Russia’s Aliya Mustafina took a distant bronze.
Olympic all-around gold was the only individual honor Biles hadn’t claimed after being too young to compete in the 2012 Olympics.
The gold medal was Biles’ second of the Rio Games, coming 48 hours after she had led the fivewoman U.S. squad to team gold by a staggering eightpoint margin over Russia.
Biles also made history for the U.S., which became the first country to win four consecutive all-around Olympic golds in women’s gymnastics.
“It would be amazing!” Biles gushed. “But that’s crazy to think about.”
Raisman was just as overjoyed with her silver and burst into tears almost the moment she threw her hands up to signal the end.
Biles followed, the final performer. She peeked at Raisman, so happy for her teammate, and nearly came unglued.
“I saw Aly start to cry!” Biles said. “I thought, ‘My goodness, she’s going to make me cry before I got out, and that’s not going to be good.’ ”
But floor exercise has always been Biles’ moment to shine. The tumbling mat turned into her canvas, and she painted furiously and brilliantly, flipping to impossible heights as she crisscrossed the mat.
Her music’s samba flavor thrilled the crowd, whose cheers spurred Biles to even great heights.
Biles started the competition on vault, executing the 2½-twist feat that only a handful of women have dared attempt in competition.
From there, the Americans proceeded to the uneven bars. Of the four apparatuses in women’s gymnastics, it’s the least suited to Biles compact physique, rewarding the long, elegant lines of women four or five inches taller.
Still, Biles was clean and precise, minimizing deductions.
The score (14.966) was respectable, but Mustafina, the world champion in the event, outscored Biles by 0.700 points on the apparatus to wrest the lead. Balance beam followed. Few competitors attempt routines on the four-inch wide beam that are as technically difficult as Biles’. Though she has practiced it to the point that her muscles need no direction, the beam has a heartless way of exposing jitters.
Yet, there’s a huge gap between her beam skills and the rest of the gymnastics world.
Her score, 15.433, was the highest awarded on beam to that point but shy of her typical mark.
Then, it was on to the floor.
No gymnast attempts a floor routine as difficult as Biles’ and, when she finished her routine, there was no need to wait for a score. She ran off the mat and was smothered in hugs.
No one could touch Biles on this afternoon.
No gymnast soared so high.