Women’s floor exercise, and I believe that that will do it for Simone Biles. She had a heck of an Olympics, didn’t she? …And subtract one small bobble and it would have been five golds instead of four golds, and one bronze. Such are the vagaries of fluctuations in the space-time continuum, apparently.
I should also note the other four members of the American ‘Final Five” women’s gymnastic team: Gabby Douglas (1 gold), Laurie Hernandez (1 gold, 1 silver), Madison Kocian (1 gold, 1 silver), and team captain Aly Raisman (1 gold, 2 silver). That’s a really nice score to rack up, particularly since only two people per country could compete in the individual event finals. And by ‘really nice’ I mean ‘impressive as hell.’ Thanks, team.
Set aside the gold medal that everybody won for the team competition, and it is actually even more impressive, both for the team and for Simone Biles.
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There are 15 medals for individual events awarded in women’s gymnastics. Because of the “two competitors per country per event rule,” the Americans could win no more than ten of those medals even if they qualified the maximum in every event. After qualification, they still had a chance at nine medals total (because Biles was the only American who qualified on the vault).
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The team as a whole won eight of those possible nine medals, including three golds, three silvers, and two bronzes. Russia took three of the remaining seven, and no other nation took more than one. Longtime powers Romania and China? Shut out of the individual medals. That is an amazing level of American dominance.
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And as for Simone Biles? She won all three of the USA’s individual golds, plus a bronze. She has truly been special to watch. If she hadn’t come, we’d be talking up Aly Raisman’s three total golds in Rio* as making her the best Olympic gymnast of her generation.
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I do feel sorry for Gabby Douglas, though. She’s been outstanding too.
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* [I’m assuming that Raisman would have won gold in the all-around and defended her gold on the floor, if only it weren’t for the presence of the sub-five-foot dynamo that is Simone Biles.]
Sorry, that’s three golds, four silvers, and a bronze. I was too involved in a conversation to do my standard level of proofreading and fact-checking.
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Yes, I proofread and fact-check comments. Why shouldn’t I? They are events, bedecked in pearls of wisdom. I’m thinking of having my next one catered, and perhaps booking a string quartet.
Will this comment be black tie, or semi-formal?
Dinner clothes, of course. (That’s black-tie for those who don’t know.) I thought about requesting white tie and tails, but best to keep things a bit more casual.
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BTW, this is not that comment.