If you have ever watched Aly Raisman on floor, you know that she is incredibly stoic and serious. Whereas Simone Biles and Laurie Hernandez are basically human emojis, Raisman rarely smiles during her routines. However, during her floor routine in the all-around final, you could see her walls breaking down after every pass. A hint of a smile here, a glimmer of a grin there. Aly hit her final double pike as her floor music finished, and then the tears came. She knew what she'd done. She knew how far she'd come. She knew she was guaranteed at least a silver medal.
After being shafted majorly during the All-Around at the London 2012 Olympics, this has been a long time coming. In 2012 she was overshadowed by Gabby Douglas, the flying squirrel. 2016 rolled around and Simone Biles was the headliner. Everyone was talking about Simone being the best, and how Gabby and Aly would have to dig in deep and work harder than ever before to make it back to the Olympics. And both of them did. Despite Biles being dubbed the "best gymnast in the world" and possibly "the best gymnast ever." Despite seeing the unbeatable scores Biles racks up during meets. Despite watching the meets and seeing how the crowd reacted whenever Biles took the floor. Despite taking a hiatus to start taking college classes. Despite hearing the doubts from the critics. Alexandra Raisman made her second Olympic team, despite everything, became the Captain of the 2016 United States Olympic team, qualified for the all-around, and then ended up earning a silver medal in the all-around. No one deserves it more. All the headlines may bill Simone and her superhuman, gravity-defying skills first (after all, she did win gold), but Aly Raisman is a different breed of gymnast. While there is no doubt that Simone Biles is an unbelievable gymnast, Aly Raisman is in a league of her own. Her persistence, unwavering character and leadership won her the silver medal. She fought hard and showed all of her critics that she does not back down against adversity. And she especially does not back down when people say that it'll be impossible to come back for a second Olympics. She hit all four of her routines. She was in the same rotation as Aliya Mustafina, who she tied with for the bronze in 2012. Being the second to last in the final rotation on floor, she watched as Mustafina put on a nearly flawless, beautiful performance... but still only scored 13.933 total. The score breakdowns tell it all.
Aliya Mustafina had a total of 58.665 points after her floor exercise. Before starting her floor exercise, Aly Raisman had a total of 44.665 points. She needed at least 14.001 points to outscore Aliya Mustafina and ensure a silver medal. She didn't want bronze... she wanted redemption. Raisman scored a 15.433 on floor. Her execution score was less than that of Mustafina's, but due to her higher difficulty score, her overall score was higher than Mustafina's. She outscored Mustafina and won the silver medal by almost 1.5 points. None of her scores were lower than 14.0, while two of Mustafina's dropped below 14. Four years, self-determination, and and a longing desire for redemption landed Alexandra Raisman on the podium. After Aly stepped of the floor, she went straight to Mihai Brestyan, her coach for many years. Both had tears in their eyes as they realized just how far they had come since London. It was a competition that both Aly Raisman and Mihai Brestyan should be proud of.
