Gymnastics: Coronation complete as Biles wins all around gold

A showing that, in a year without the brilliance of Simone Biles, would have otherwise had her in gold atop the podium. When they come back around in Tokyo, she’ll be 23, likely slightly past her prime.

“Just because she wins every single competition”, Raisman said. She arrived in Brazil with 14 world championship medals – 10 of them gold – with routines astonishing in their mix of ambition and precision.

“It’s unbelievable to be recognised for all of this success, [but] I’m not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps, I’m the first Simone Biles“.

According to ESPN.com, “Simone Biles already owned three consecutive world titles and four US national championships before she arrived in Rio”.

One that she does better than anyone else. She’s the three-time world champion on floor, and even has a tumbling skill named after her. Normally close to flawless, Biles found a new level of perfection in that 90 seconds.

Biles led a U.S. 1-2 in the Rio Olympic Arena ahead of Aly Raisman with Russia’s Aliya Mustafina taking her second straight Games all-around bronze.

“I would have loved to go out there and defend my title, but right now I’m just rejoicing and so far this has just been an unbelievable experience”, she said. “I want young boys and girls all over the world to feel fearless and to know there is a light at the end of the tunnel and to know there is a shiny gold medal”, she said.

“I never really think about it, because it’s something you can’t expect and you don’t know what it’s going to be like until it happens”.

Biles and Raisman completed a one-two finish for the second time for the USA after Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson won gold and silver respectively in 2008. The competition around Biles has been getting better too, but she’s been improving at a greater rate. As usual, Biles shined brightest in the floor exercise. It was a stark improvement from the Olympic trials where Douglas fell off the beam not once, but twice, leaving Karolyi to defend the decision to put her on the team.

Biles shrugged off the talk, just as she shrugged off a question afterward about whether she was a celebrity (she says shes not).

While Biles became the first woman in 20 years to win back-to-back world and Olympic all around titles, Comaneci also felt the gap between the American and the rest of the world needs to narrow as otherwise boredom could drive her away from the sport. She led her teammates to the team gold to kick off her Olympics, then calmly did her thing on the balance beam to take a commanding lead before capping off the night with a strong effort on the floor event.

An Olympian, a gold medalist, and an awesome woman, Biles does not hesitate to live up to the expectation of being a role model as well.