Photo Credit: Twitter
On Tuesday August 9th, Team USA’s Women’s Artistics Gymnastics team achieved a feat that has never been accomplished in American Olympic history. The team took home the gold medal in two consecutive Olympic appearances.
The team, captained by Olympic veteran Alexandra Raisman, helped lead her team to an almost inevitable gold medal with the help of fellow veteran Gabby Douglas and Olympic newbees, Simone Biles, Lauren Hernandez and Madison Kocian. The five athletes revealed that they refer to themselves as the “Final Five” after they had officially learned they would earn the gold. As explained by the commentators, they chose to be called the Final Five as in the next summer Olympics, which will be held in Tokyo in 2020, there will only be four gymnasts of each country’s team, not including alternates.
The United States had a strong lead all day, starting their day on the vault. They averaged a score of 46.866 with the help of strong performances from Raisman, Biles and Hernandez. Team USA dominated the rest of the events, averaging scores of 46.499 on uneven bars, 45.533 on the balance beam, and an outstanding 45.999 in floor exercise. Their total score to take home the gold was 184.897, a 1.301 difference from the “Fierce Five” gold medal performance in 2012.
Incredible floor exercise performances by Raisman, who scored a 15.366 in the event, only second to Biles score of 15.800, closed out the meet for the American gymnasts, sealing the Olympic gold medal deal.
In her first even Olympic appearance, Biles appeared to be the star of the show, competing in all four events at the meet. Lauren Hernandez also represented the United States in her first Olympics well, posting scores of 15.1 on vault, a 15.233 on beam and a 14.833 in floor exercise. Other first time Olympian Madison Kocian only took part in the uneven bars, nailing a nearly flawless performance with a score of 15.933. Veteran Gabby Douglas competed again on bars, sticking a double layout to post a score of 15.766.
A team made up of some of the best gymnasts in the world, the United States carried a ten point lead going into the final. At the end of the competition, the lead over silver medalists Russia was 8.209 and 8.894 of bronze medalists China.
Aly Raisman and Simone Biles will compete in the Individual All-Around on Thursday, August 11th. Participants for individual events will be posted before the start of those competitions.
