As I sit watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, I have only one athlete on my mind: Simone Biles. Simone is the United States' most sure chance at gold in gymnastics. For those of you who are not familiar with women’s artistic gymnastics, there are six possible gold medals and Biles is the favorite to win five of those. That statistic alone should tell you how dominant this 19-year-old gymnast is, but her resume is far more impressive than odds.
Biles won the World All-Around gold in 2013, 2014 and 2015, making her the only gymnast to ever win three times in a row. Not only has she excelled in World Championships, winning more world medals than any female gymnast in history, but Biles has also not lost a single all-around competition in three years. Expected to lead the USA team to gold, win the all-around competition and gold medals on floor exercise, balance beam and vault all eyes should be on Biles in Rio.
I am a gymnast and have competed for the past several years, acquiring my fair share of gymnastics knowledge, but even for those with untrained eyes it is unquestionable that Simone Biles destroys the competition. This is very rare - most of the time it is very difficult to tell who is performing better and the difference between gold and silver is just a few tenths and a couple of knee bends. But with Biles, it is huge. Her floor exercise is one of the most untouchable routines ever, performing a double twisting double back as a third pass and boasting a skill named after her "the Biles," a double lay with a half out. Her difficulty is incredibly high, and having a skill only you can do certainly doesn’t hurt.
Aside from floor exercise, Simone is incredible at vault, performing one of the most difficult vaults, the amanar- a two-and-a-half twisting layout with a blind landing. Her scores are miles higher than competitors and she is capable of scores as high as a 16.3, which is simply unattainable by anyone else.
I can only imagine the pressure that Simone Biles currently feels to perform well at the Olympic games, but I also want to touch on the fact that she has already achieved more than most all of the Olympic All-Around winners and certainly doesn’t need this victory to solidify her greatness, as many have been insinuating. Greatness isn’t about one particular event. It is about a collection and career of outstanding achievements, and Biles has most certainly proved to be magnificent.
With that being said, I do believe she will claim victory at the Olympics and prove the common two-year all-around greatness theory to be far from correct. Even if you are not the biggest gymnastics fan, I urge you to watch this young women compete because you will be watching the most dominant female athlete ever perform, and win, wearing the red, white and blue.





















