In a historical moment on August 9, 2016, Olympic gymnasts Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian, and Aly Raisman won gold medals for the women’s team all-around. And they did it with spunk and absolute boss-ness.
Biles competed in all four events for the team, commanding impressive scores and dominating throughout them. Raisman competed in three, turning out what could have been the best vault of her life, and also competing in floor and beam. Hernandez also competed in three events, scoring solid standings for her team in vault, beam, and floor. Douglas and Kocian, each only competing in one event, both nailed great scores on uneven bars.
Team USA began their team competition with vault, a good way to channel that nervous energy into power. Not that either Biles or Raisman seemed nervous—they’re solid competitors who both have a lot of experience competing in front of crowds. Raisman is a returning Olympian, having competed and won gold with team USA in 2012. And although Biles is a first time Olympian, she’s a three-time all around winner in the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships three from 2012 to 2015, and she is the first woman to do so.
Both Raisman’s and Biles’s floor routines were astounding as well. Raisman scored a 15.366 and Biles a 15.8, the top score out of all the floor routines. Biles, of course, nailed the move that is named after her, a double layout with a half twist. Biles separates herself from other gymnasts by landing moves that others won’t even attempt in competition.
And then there’s competitor Laurie Hernandez, the girl with all the spunk imaginable (they also call her the human emoji). She gave the judges a wink right before she started her floor routine, and her performance was really fun to watch. She’s an amazing gymnast, and though she’s only sixteen, she is able to handle these high pressure situations.
Teammates Gabby Douglas and Madison Kocian competed in uneven bars for team USA, Kocian scoring a 15.933, the highest score in the event for the day. Gabby Douglas is a returning Olympic champion, and I was surprised to see her competing in only one event, especially because she won the gold in the all-around individual competition in the 2012 Olympic Games. Although she remains an amazing gymnast, her scores have gotten lower over the past four years. She still scored an impressive 15.766 on uneven bars to further lift Team USA towards gold.
The Americans ended the competition with Biles on floor. Though they had pretty much sealed the deal, they waited anxiously for her score to come back before celebrating. But of course there had been no need to worry, as she achieved the top score on floor that night, a 15.8.
Here are the results:
Biles on floor: 15.8 (top score for the event)
Raisman on floor: 15.366
Hernandez on floor: 14.833
Raisman on beam: 15
Biles on beam: 15.3
Hernandez on beam: 15.233
Biles on uneven bars: 14.8
Kocian on uneven bars: 15.933 (top score for the event)
Douglas on uneven bars: 15.766
Raisman on vault: 15.833
Hernandez on vault: 15.1
Biles on vault: 15.933
After clinching their victory, the five gymnasts yelled into the nearest camera, “We are the final five!” The team picked the name “final five” because it is Martha Karolyi’s last Olympics as the U.S. national team coordinator. Karolyi has turned the once weak USA gymnastics team into an incredible force, and many gymnasts have flourished under her methods.
Additionally, the 2016 Olympics will be the last one to include five gymnasts for each team. Starting in 2020, each team will only have four gymnasts, another reason the team decided on calling themselves the "final five". This new rule is a large difference from the seven-person teams that were standard at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, before the teams were reduced to six for the 2000 Olympics, and then five for London in 2012.
Though the teams are shrinking to four, each country will be able to take two additional gymnasts, all-around or specialist, that won’t contribute to the team final.
The USA finished in front of Russia by 8.2 points, a wide margin in the world of gymnastics. Biles continued on to get gold in the individual all-around with a total score of 62.198 and Raisman scored silver with a total of 60.098. In the past four summer Olympics, an American gymnast has gotten the gold medal in the individual competition.
Not only did the USA women’s gymnastics team display their skills with power and grace, making the team and individual events exhilarating to watch, we got to see perhaps the best gymnast of all time, Simone Biles, compete in the Olympic games.
