Tuesday, August 9, 2016

At a Glance: Team USA Takes Repeat Gold Medals in Women’s Gymnastics


© John Cheng
By Jo-Ann Barnas, Special Contributor For USA Gymnastics

Unbeatable then. Unstoppable now.

The most dominate team in the world the last three years now has an Olympic gold medal to prove it.

The U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team easily defended the team title it won in London with a masterful performance Tuesday at the Rio Olympic Arena.

Led by three-time World champion Simone Biles, the U.S. women became the first back-to-back Olympic team gold medalists since Romania in 2000 and 2004.

They did it by winning each event en route to an 184.897 total score, more than eight points ahead of silver-medalist Russia. China won the bronze medal.

The Americans had a .700 lead after vault, their first rotation, and extended it to 4.026 after uneven bars and 4.961 after balance beam.

The team of Biles, Aly Raisman, Laurie Hernandez, Gabby Douglas and Madison Kocian gave a sneak preview of how good they intended to be when they rolled through team qualifying on Sunday, finishing nearly 10 points higher than the second-best team, China.

The women's competition continues for U.S. all-arounders Biles and Raisman on Thursday.

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