Team USA's Best Chance for Gold in Every Women's Gymnastics Event
It's a gigantic stage for a colossal anticlimax.
Though it seems a suggestion of Ruthian or Gretzkyesque proportions, the idea that Simone Biles will run roughshod over the individual gymnastics competition at the Rio Games is now perceived as a given.
No less an authority than NBC's Tim Daggett, himself a gold and bronze winner at the 1984 Games, labeled the idea with heady terms.
"It's astounding to think she has the ability to win five of the six gold medals in women's gymnastics," he said.
She's already picked up a team gold and an all-around gold, and she could grab the remaining three in the four individual apparatus finals—vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise—that'll be vied for on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
Teammates Madison Kocian, Aly Raisman, Laurie Hernandez and Gabby Douglas have their individual chances as well, and suggesting at least one of them will ascend to the top step of the medals stand is hardly hyperbolic.
But when it comes to Rio, it's Biles' world, and they're all just living in it.
Vault: Simone Biles
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Biles uses her compact, muscled body to spring into a backward salto—in which her body is completely stretched, toes pointed and legs straight—that includes two-and-a-half twists and has her landing while facing forward.
Not surprisingly, she's a two-time silver medalist and one-time bronze winner in the event on the world championship level.
She gets more height than any of her competitors and scored a 15.866 on the vault during the individual all-around Olympics competition, outpacing all competitors. There's no reason to think, given her predilection for stuck landings, that it won't happen again in the event final.
Uneven Bars: Madison Kocian
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She's the least familiar member of the U.S. women's "Final Five" and heads into the apparatus finals with considerably less street cred than celebrated teammates Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas.
But it's not as if Kocian doesn't have reason to be optimistic about her uneven bars chances.
In fact, she'll take the Rio stage as a reigning world champion in the event, and she qualified first for the Olympic finals with a bars score of 15.866. Not to mention, Kocian's 15.933 helped the Americans clinch their second consecutive team gold earlier this week.
With that as preface, don't be at all surprised if Kocian steps out for some solo glory.
Balance Beam: Simone Biles
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It's an event where even Biles has occasionally come off as human.
She fell from the beam at the U.S. trials in San Jose, California, last month and wobbled a bit during the beam portion of the Olympic all-around competition en route to recording a 15.433.
But even with a less-than-perfect performance, she was more than half a point ahead of her nearest competitor.
Her unique "wolf turn" includes two-and-a-half rotations with a leg extended on a four-inch beam, and her dismount—complete with a twisting back somersault—is simply bigger and badder than anyone in the field.
It's her to lose.
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Floor Exercise: Simone Biles
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You've got to feel for Aly Raisman.
The Massachusetts-reared Olympian posted a glittering 15.433 on the floor exercise portion of her all-around competition. Problem was, Biles hadn't even gotten started.
All she did was drop a 15.933 on Raisman and the rest of field, locking up her all-around title and establishing herself as a clear favorite in the event final.
Her tumbling run with a double layout and half twist is as good as anything offered by anyone else, and she wraps things up with an attitude-sopped pose that makes the sequence her own.
Raisman is capable of a lot, and spunky teen Laurie Hernandez has the sass of a much older woman, but unless Biles falters to create an opening, go ahead and cue her standing ovation.
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