U.S. women romp to Rio Olympics gymnastics team gold

China, the 2008 Beijing champions who finished off the podium in London, were a shadow of their United States rivals, with Wang Yang qualifying seventh in the all-around and Shang Chunsong 20th as she complained of illness.

Unfortunately, as Cosmopolitan reports, Gabby Douglas, who wowed crowds in the 2012 Summer Olympics, taking home the gold in the individual and team all-around competitions, will not be able to defend her title thanks to the “two per country” rule. And then she had to sit and wait to see what Raisman would do.

Though the 22-year-old had one big wobble, the rest of her beam routine was nearly flawless, including her super hard double Arabian front dismount. Still, it wasn’t enough to send her through to the next round.

Jordyn Wieber broke down in tears when she failed to qualify for the all-around final at the 2012 London Olympics. So even though Douglas is arguably one of the three best all-around gymnasts in the world, she is being left out because two Americans, Simone Biles and Aly Raisman, finished first and second, respectively. She is sure making up for it every chance she gets, and is well on her way to leading her and her four teammates to gold.

But Douglas’ pain and frustration is Raisman’s joy.

Gabby Douglas will have to watch the all-around final from the sideline.

Raisman has been vocal that her comeback was, in large part, motivated by her desire to get the all-around medal she was denied back in 2012. You could sense the urgency all afternoon, as she went through the events, turning in some of her best ever performances across three apparatuses.

When Raisman, Douglas and their teammates on the not-yet-nicknamed 2016 team qualified to the team final in Rio, it was by almost 10 points.

Though undoubtedly disappointed, Douglas was one of the the first to hug Raisman when she descended from the podium after her beam routine.

Biles had the highest individual all-around score (62.366) as well the top marks on the vault (16.050), balance beam (15.633) and floor exercise (15.733).

“I finally did a routine that I do in practice, so I was super excited about that”, said Biles as the U.S. team nailed all their rotations without a major error.

But she will compete in the team and uneven bars finals, along with Kocian who led the way on the apparatus ahead of London Games gold medallist Aliya Mustafina of Russian Federation. “It’s just really exciting that we finished qualifications as well as we did”.