Olympic Women's Gymnastics 2016: Team All-Around Medal Winners and Scores

The United States women's gymnastics team entered the all-around final on Tuesday as the heavy favorite to capture its second consecutive Olympic gold medal, and it delivered with a total score of 184.897.

Position	Country	Score
Gold	United States	184.897
Silver	Russia	176.688
Bronze	China	176.003
4th	Japan	174.371
5th	Great Britain	174.362
6th	Germany	173.672
7th	Netherlands	172.447
8th	Brazil	172.087

The writing was on the wall for America's triumph during Sunday's qualifying session.

The U.S. women had a total score of 185.238, with China a distant second at 175.279. Even though scores don't transfer over to the finals, that performance showed it was going to take some kind of disastrous turn of events to keep the Americans off the gold-medal podium. 

Russian gymnast Aliya Mustafina said after Sunday that the U.S. squad looked dominant, per the Associated Press' Will Graves: "It's going to be really difficult to compete against the American team. They are unbeatable at the moment."

Laurie Hernandez got the United States off to an excellent start on the vault with a double-twisting Yurchenko that gave her a score of 15.100. Not to be outdone, Aly Raisman and Simone Biles dazzled with separate Amanars off the vault that gave the U.S. a combined score of 46.866. 

However, Russia was able to keep it close with a score of 46.166. Mustafina led the way for her team with a score of 15.933 to put some pressure on the Americans. 

As brilliant as Biles' Amanar was, it was Raisman's that earned plaudits from former Olympian Shawn Johnson:

After the U.S. grabbed the early lead on vault, things moved to the bars, which was not considered its best event among the four all-around events. 

Madison Kocian didn't really care about that previous assessment, via NBC Olympics:

The 19-year-old from Texas nailed her routine with a score of 15.933, earning this praise from SB Nation's Rodger Sherman:

Gabby Douglas was not far behind Kocian with a score of 15.766 to help the U.S. extend its lead to nearly four full points over China in the all-around event and eliciting this response from the U.S. Olympic Team on Twitter:

Shifting to the balance beam as the United States looked to increase its lead, Hernandez got some words of encouragement from her teammate, via Katie Barnes of espnW.com:

Hernandez proceeded to take those words and posted a score of 15.233. Biles provided the anchor role on the beam after winning gold at the world championships each of the last two years. She did have a slight stumble early in her routine, yet she still managed a score of 15.3. 

Sandwiched between Hernandez and Biles, Raisman was the low woman on the totem pole with a still-strong 15.0 score that was capped off with a picture-perfect landing on her dismount. 

Heading into the floor exercise, the United States extended its lead to nearly five full points, 138.898 to 133.937, over China. Raisman, who won gold in the floor exercise four years ago, looked like the star of the show with a score of 15.366 that left NBC Olympics on Twitter nearly speechless:

Not to be outdone, Biles took the floor and decided to one-up her teammate with a score of 15.8 to put the cherry on top of what was a lock long before anyone stepped on the floor today. 

The real drama was for the silver and bronze medals, with China, Japan and Russia all vying for a spot on the podium.

Russia was unable to capitalize after a solid performance on the vaults, notably leaving a lot of points on the board during the floor exercise and pushing its score down to open the door for China and Japan.

Japan struggled its way through the balance beam, though, knocking its score down and leaving an opportunity for Russia to make a move. The vault saved Russia's medal chances with an average score of 15.244 to overtake China for the silver medal. Mustafina got the surge started with a score of 15.133. Maria Paseka left no doubt about things with a dazzling execution that pushed her score to 15.700.

Credit the Russian team for never wavering in the face of adversity, but Tuesday was all about the U.S. women who fulfilled their destiny and somehow managed to exceed those lofty expectations.

Post-Match Reaction

United States national team coordinator Martha Karolyi summed up the effort of her girls perfectly, per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com): "I think at this moment we can say that that the United States dominates the world of gymnastics."

After winning gold, the five young women on the U.S. squad dubbed themselves the "final five" to honor Karolyi, who has said she intends to step down from the job she has held since 2001 after the Rio Olympics.