A Dream Come True

The only thing that stopped Simone Biles was the end of competition.

The women’s gymnastics events at the Rio Olympics ended on Tuesday and Biles continued to display a mastery of her sport and her opponents.

She earned her fourth gold medal of these games by winning the floor exercise, which is her best event. There was almost no doubt that would happen, especially after this dynamic athlete “settled” for a bronze medal in balance beam.

Biles became the fourth American woman to win four gold medals in gymnastics, tying Mary Lou Retton (1984), Shannon Miller (1992) and Nastia Lukin (2008). Let’s also note that Aly Reisman of the U.S. won silver in the floor exercise, her third medal of these games and sixth overall.

Most of us are not experts in gymnastics. We’re enthralled by these compact people doing things that seem to defy physics and logic, but we hardly comprehend all the terms that get thrown around to describe their actions.

Consider what The New York Times had to say about Biles: “Her signature floor move is the Biles, a double layout with a half-twist and a blind landing. She performed the move nearly perfectly, adding a stag leap, which she had left out of her performance in the team event but included in the individual all-around.”
I’ve no doubt that’s exactly what she did. Whatever all of that meant. Perfectly? Ah, I understand now.

Even if we cannot decipher the lingo, we know what we saw and what she did. Simone Biles is excellence personified.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman