Simone Biles - Vault 1 (end view) - 2016 P&G Gymnastics Championships - Sr. Women Day 2
Turning each rotation into a showcase for her unmatched talent, Biles posted an eye-popping score of 62.900, well clear of runners up Aly Raisman and Laurie Hernandez and everybody else on the plane.t
"It"s all about peaking for the right moment," Biles said. "I think this is a stepping stone toward it."
The gap the 19-year-old Texan has created between herself and the rest of the world during a winning streak that"s nearly three years and counting shows no signs of closing. If anything, it"s widening considering her nearest competitors are the four women who will join her on the plane to Brazil in August.
"There"s no one that can catch Simone," said Raisman after her best night since her return to competition in March, 2015.
Not in the U.S. and certainly not in the rest of the world.
Biles was nearly flawless from the start, her beam routine a 45-second showcase of precision with nary a wobble or even a peak at the floor 4-feet below. Her score of 15.7 is a significant step up from the 15.388 she posted at world championships last fall, an event she won easily. Her floor routine includes a series of hand flourishes that seems as if she"s saying "follow me" and a series of tumbling passes that are the gymnastics version of Michael Jordan at the height of his "airness" prime.
Asked to nitpick her performance and Biles paused. It"s not that she"s perfect gymnastics doesn"t do perfect anymore it"s just that she"s as close as anyone has been in a long, long time. While she pointed to nearly imperceptible miscues during her beam dismount and her first vault, even she had to admit there was little else that went wrong.
"I was pretty happy with it," Biles said.
So was Karolyi, who will have plenty to think about over the next two weeks as she tries to find the right four women to join Biles on the plane to Brazil in August. The one thing that"s not on her mind is the mental state of her star.
"Usually these very talented girls don"t have patience," Karolyi said. "They"re explosive and full with energy but sometimes they can be annoyed with doing the very same routine."
Biles hardly looked bored while putting on a show no one else can match. And she wasn"t the only one who looked ready for the stage that awaits in Brazil.
Raisman wanted to "vomit" while starting out on beam, where she won bronze in London four years ago. She didn"t exactly look nervous while putting up a 15.150, something she credited on the poker face she inherited from her father. After beating herself up for months after a poor showing by her standards anyway at world championships last fall, Raisman is right back where she was in 2012, maybe even a bit better.
Defending Olympic champion Gabby Douglas, who won the American Cup and in Italy earlier this spring, wasn"t quite as sharp. She wobbled twice on beam and needed a world-class save to stay on at one point. Yet she did to avoid a major deduction, a trait Karolyi welcomes nearly as much as a flawlessly executed routine. Still, her score of 58.9 needs to improve on Sunday to remove any lingering doubt.
"I just got a little bit relaxed and let things slip," she said. "I need to stay aggressive. The confidence level is there."
Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sports/4049385-155/olympics-simone-biles-on-top-again
