ROME (AP) — Italian gymnast Carlotta Ferlito has apologized for making a racist comment aimed at an American rival.

Vanessa Ferrari and teammate Ferlito finished fourth and fifth on the balance beam Sunday at the world championships in Belgium — just behind bronze medalist Simone Biles.

Afterward, Ferlito said with a big laugh, “I told Vane that next time we’ll have our skin black also so we can win, too.”

On Tuesday, Ferlito tweeted, “I want to apologize with the Americans girls. I didn’t want to sound rude or racist. I love Simone and I’m a huge fan of USA gymnastics.”

She then added, “I’ve made a mistake, I’m not perfect … I didn’t think about what I was saying. I’m just a human. I’m so so sorry.”

NANNING, China (AP) — Simone Biles of the United States won her second straight all-around gold medal at the gymnastics world championships on Friday.

Biles, 17, scored 15.066 on her floor routine to finish with 60.231 points and defend the title she won last year in Antwerp, Belgium.

Larisa Iordache of Romania won silver with 59.765 points, and Kyla Ross of the United States took bronze with 58.232.

Biles held a 0.133-point lead over Iordache after three of four events. Iordache’s title hopes took a hit when she stepped out during her floor routine.

(Via USA Today) — GLASGOW, Scotland / It’s not enough for the U.S. women to set the gold standard in gymnastics.

At the rate they’re piling up the bling, their collection is going to rival that of a royal family by the end of next summer’s Rio Olympics.

Simone Biles became the first woman to win three consecutive titles at the world championships Thursday. One step below her on the podium was Gabby Douglas, the first reigning Olympic champ to win a world medal since way back in 1981.

“It’s such an honor, especially coming from the United States,” said Biles, who matched Svetlana Khorkina for total all-around titles. “We strive for greatness.”

Safe to say they’ve got that covered.

The Americans, who two days earlier won their third consecutive team title, are so much better than the rest of the world that the best competition occurs back at the Karolyi Ranch, where the national team has monthly training camps. Get through those, and spots on the podium may as well be on reserve.

No one can deny that 18-year old gymnast Simone Biles is having an incredible year.

Fresh off her historic 2015 World Gymnastic Championships win this fall, the Olympic hopeful was recently awarded one of the highest accolades attainable to American athletes. On Thursday, she was named the winner of the Team USA Female Olympic Athlete of the Year, beating out tennis GOAT Serena Williams and nine-time world champion swimmer Katie Ledecky, USA Today wrote.

Even more awesome? Biles did it without having actually having been on an Olympic team. She was too young to make the 2012 Olympic team that competed in the London games, but Biles, along with Gold medalist Gabby Douglass, are prepping for the Olympic trials next July to win a spot on the U.S. team heading to Rio for the 2016 Summer Olympics. 

Biles’ athleticism is a tour-de-force as she continues to break records wherever she tumbles.

Since she began competing in 2013, the Texan-native has not lost any meets, winning “14 world championship medals in three years; 10 of them gold, the most by a woman in history,” writes ESPN.com. She is also the first woman in 23 years to win a three U.S. Gymnastics Championships and this fall, she became the first woman in history to win three consecutive all-around titles at the World Gymnastics Championships.

Biles was just one of many winners announced at the ceremony held in Philadelphia, others awardees included:

• Male Olympic Athlete of the Year – Jordan Burroughs, Wrestling
• Olympic Team of the Year – USA Women’s Soccer
• Female Paralympic Athlete of the Year – Tatyana McFadden, Track and Field
• Male Paralympic Athlete of the Year – Joe Berenyi, Cycling
• Paralympic Team of the Year – USA Hockey

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ST. LOUIS (AP) — The national titles are starting to run together for Simone Biles, a three-year blur of near flawlessly executed routines and carry-on cases full of medals.

If Biles is being honest, the fourth straight all-around championship she cruised to on Sunday night wasn’t so much a competition as an exhibition and one more thing for Biles to scratch off her checklist before the next real test, the one that in some ways will help define her legacy:

Rio de Janeiro and the Summer Olympics.

It’s a destination Biles is finally allowing herself to think after putting up a two-day total of 125.00 — the highest during her historic run at the top — to beat three-time Olympic medalist Aly Raisman by nearly four points. Only next week’s Olympic Trials, a mere formality, stand between the 19-year-old Texan and the global stage.

“I guess there’s really no other steps besides trials and making the team,” Biles said. “We’re one step ahead again.”

Technically Biles has been there for years. She hasn’t lost a meet since July, 2013 while creating a gap between herself and the rest of the planet, one that shows no signs of closing with 40 days to go before opening ceremonies in Brazil. Biles began the night with a dynamic floor exercise that combines peerless tumbling with the kind of charisma that should play in living rooms across the world in August.

She followed it up with a difficult Amanar vault — one of the most challenging currently being done in competition — in which she seemed to drop out of the sky before landing. Only a minuscule hop stood between Biles and perfection, just enough of a miscue for judges to deduct a tenth of a point while giving her a 9.9 for execution.

“I don’t think there’s any such thing as perfect in gymnastics anymore,” Biles said. “They always find something.”

Biles is as close as the sport gets at the moment as the leader of a team that will be heavily favored to dominate the podium in Brazil. The five-woman Olympic squad won’t be officially announced until July 10. Biles’ place is secure, and the picture around her appears to be rapidly clearing up.

Raisman began the year struggling with her form following a disappointing — by her standards — performance at the 2015 world championships, when she failed to qualify for the all-around final after finishing behind Biles and Olympic champion Gabby Douglas during qualifying.

The 22-year-old spent the winter vowing to regain Karolyi’s trust and now finds herself in perhaps the finest stretch of a career that includes two golds and a bronze from the 2012 games.

Steady on beam. Powerful on floor. Efficient on uneven bars, Raisman may be the best gymnast in the world not named Biles at the moment. The current Olympic champion on floor exercise began the night with a gravity defying tumbling pass she managed to finish with a smile. She joked after the first round on Friday that staying within a couple of points of Biles would be a victory in itself. Raisman’s score of 60.650 on Sunday was just 1.5 behind her good friend.

“I think that I am better (than I was four years ago),” Raisman said. “And I feel like I’m on track to be a better gymnast than I was.”

Raisman isn’t the only one surging. So is electric 16-year-old Laurie Hernandez, who looks right at home on the big stage in her first year at the senior level. Her routines are is a study in attitude and aggression, character traits Karolyi prizes as much as any cleanly executed skill.

Gabby Douglas, trying to become the first gymnast in nearly 50 years to repeat as Olympic champion, ended up fourth and admitted she needed to improve after a sloppy night on Friday. Douglas got off to a shaky start as she fought to stay on bars — the event that first drew Karolyi’s admiration — and posted a pedestrian 14.5. She was better on balance beam, landing her dismount with an emphatic stick that might as well have served as a reminder of what she can do when she’s on.

“Trials, I’ll be better a trials,” Douglas said with a laugh.

The only real drama heading to San Jose is likely for the fifth and final spot. Madison Kocian, who won gold on uneven bars at last fall’s world championships, continued her impressive comeback from a leg injury in February. Though she was second to Ashton Locklear on bars at nationals, she also finished in the top half of the field on beam and floor, versatility that would be valuable in international competitions as Karolyi tries to put together a group for the three-up, three-count crucible that is the Olympic team finals.

Karolyi began the weekend with a team in mind and didn’t see much to change her preferences over the course of two nights. Whoever hops the plane to Rio will go as the heavy favorites to bring back copious amounts of gold led by Biles, who is head — and shoulders, legs and everything else — above the rest.

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Simone Biles became just the second woman in 40 years to win four consecutive national U.S. gymnastics titles, setting the stage for a potential gold medal haul at this year’s Summer Olympics. All eyes will be on Biles as she takes to the world stage in Rio, with some experts saying she could walk away with five gold medals at the games.

Biles, 19, completed her latest feat last Sunday in St. Louis as the U.S. Gymnastics Championships. Joan Moore Gnat achieved the impressive feat first between the years of 1971 and 1974. Ever since the historic wins by fellow Team USA gymnastics teammate Gabby Douglas in the 2012 Summer Olympics, all eyes have been on both her and Biles.

While the pressure would crush most people, Biles doesn’t seem moved by all of the attention and expectations heaped upon her. The ice-cold Spring, Texas native treats gymnastics as a second nature as she continues to push herself to the limits.

Outgoing national team coach Martha Karolyi believes this year’s team is better than the last and her husband, Bela, who coached Mary Lou Retton and Nadia Comaneci, said the Biles among the top gymnasts ever. Retton is a fan as well.

Biles success at such high levels has not been without some personal challenges. In her early childhood she and her sister, Adria, were place in foster care due to her drug-addicted mother. She and her sister were adopted by their maternal grandparents along with two older siblings. It was they who entered the future superstar into gymnastics in 2003.

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SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Simone Biles can officially book that plane ticket for Brazil. Same for defending Olympic champion Gabby Douglas.

Biles, the three-time world gymnastics champion, secured her spot on the U.S. Olympic team with a near flawless tour of the SAP Center on Sunday night, earning an automatic berth on the five-woman team by strolling to the all-around title at the Olympic Trials.

Biles will be joined in Rio de Janeiro by Douglas, three-time Olympic medalist Aly Raisman, Madison Kocian and Laurie Hernandez. MyKayla Skinner, Ragan Smith and Ashton Locklear are the alternates.

While Biles has been a lock for months, the path to the Olympics was far murkier for Douglas. A revelation in London four years ago, the 20-year-old has struggled with her form in recent weeks and fell off balance beam for a second straight night while finishing seventh behind Biles.

But she finished third on uneven bars behind Kocian and Locklear, and national team coordinator Martha Karolyi has long believed in Douglas’ ability to turn it up when the pressure is on.

Biles, who hasn’t lost in more than three years, posted a two-day total of 123.250. The trials put an end to three-plus years of anticipation for the electrifying 19-year-old, who has rapidly developed from bouncy prodigy to arguably the greatest gymnast of all-time.

The only thing missing on a resume that includes 14 world championship medals and four national titles is Olympic gold. She will head to Rio as the heavy favorite to become the fourth straight American to stand atop the podium at the end of the all-around finals on Aug. 11, the brightest star on a squad that is very much the gymnastics equivalent of the Michael Jordan-led Dream Team that overwhelmed the 1992 Games.

Yet the moment Biles has spent her entire career training for didn’t quite go as planned. Sure, she was spectacular at times — particularly on vault where her score of 16.2 included a 9.9 mark for execution. She also stepped out of bounds during her floor exercise and hopped off the beam following a rare mistake.

While her lead was never in danger — and really, it hasn’t been since the summer of 2013 — there’s little doubt the missteps will linger with Biles as she prepares for Brazil.

The Americans haven’t lost a major international competition in six years, the gap between themselves and the rest of the world hardening along the way. Anything less than sending Karolyi into retirement with gold would be a “Miracle On Ice”-level upset.

The only real drama heading into the final night of trials centered on who would join Biles. The precocious 16-year-old Hernandez — who admits she’s too naive to know any better — continued her rapid ascension to perhaps the best threat to Biles’ long run at the top. Her best event is the balance beam, a 45-second test of nerves that she treats like a workout on the beach. Her score of 15.7 is gold-medal worthy if she can repeat it in Rio.

Raisman’s spot ended a remarkable resurgence in recent months. She had a forgettable performance at the world championships last fall — failing to make an individual event final — and seemed to be in the middle of the pack as recently as March.

Not anymore. The 22-year-old — the oldest member of the team — stormed her way through two run-up events to trials and kept it going on Sunday night.

Kocian, a world champion on uneven bars, rode the strength of a 15.9 on Sunday night to give herself just enough breathing room over Locklear.

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Photographer Thomas Prior talks about the discipline and precision required to “create a tack-sharp photograph” of U.S. Olympic gymnast Simone Biles for the cover of Time magazine’s new Olympics issue.

Per Time:

Inside Biles’ family gym in Houston, Prior tested his lights with a body double so they would freeze the three-time world all-around champion perfectly in midair, sculpting her idealized figure against his matte black backdrop.

“I thought I could do it in five minutes but it became apparent the trampoline is very hard to focus,” Prior tells Time, instead taking a full hour granted by Biles. “She drifts about a foot back and forward between poses.”

The final image chosen for the cover balances her elegant pose without looking strained. A glowing golden light accentuates her powerful muscles while preserving her grace.

Go girl!

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(Photo Source: Instagram)

Team USA is stacked with talent from the dominating men’s and women’s basketball teams, to track star Alyson Felix to America’s gymnastics team. Four years ago we saw Gabby Douglas and team rise to stardom with their amazing performances in London. One of the rising stars on the newfound team is Simone Biles who stunned the world back in November with a memorable floor routine. But before we begin to cheer for Biles here are 5 facts about the new Olympic gymnast.

She’s already made history

At the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow, she became the first woman to win three gold medals back to back in the all-around portion. But she wasn’t done. Earlier this year, the Ohio native finished out the last day of the competition by winning her tenth gold medal at a world championship, which also marks her 14th medal overall and is yet another U.S record.

She was raised by her grandfather

Biles was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1997 to a mother who struggled with drug and alcohol addiction and was unable to care for Simone and her little sister Adria. So her grandfather Ron and his wife Nellie stepped in and raised the two young girls at their home in Houston, Texas.

Her obsession with gymnastics started early

It really didn’t take Simone long to realize that she loved being a gymnast, or at least the idea of it. After all, she was doing backflips off the family mailbox before even enrolling in a class. At 6-years-old she finally started taking classes and soon met her current coach Aimee Boorman.

Simone really, really doesn’t like bees

Her dislike for bees is pretty real. So real that it ran her off the podium .

During the 2014 Gymnastics World Championship in China, Romanian gymnast Larisa Iordache points out a bee on Biles’ bouquet. During the award ceremony, the 3 medalists ban together to avoid pretty much any contact with the bee.

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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The nerves were there. Unmistakable. Unavoidable. Standing in the darkened tunnel before entering Rio Olympic Arena on Sunday night, the U.S. women’s gymnastics team felt the pressure that comes not from outside expectations but those held within.

Then the lights came on.

And just like that, the young women in the glittery red-and-blue leotards national team coordinator Martha Karolyi has molded into a global force relaxed.

And dominated.

On bars. On beam. On vault and floor too. Their not-a-typo score of 185.238 was nearly 10 points better than second-place China through four of the five subdivisions, a preposterous gap in a sport where the difference between first and second is measured in fractions.

“It’s never 100 percent perfect but I think we showed that our gymnastics is of the highest level,” Karolyi said.

One no opponent is close to reaching. If the U.S. had swapped out its highest score on each event with its lowest, it would still be up by six points.

Three-time world champion Simone Biles led the way. Her score of 62.366 was well clear of teammate Aly Raisman. So much for the butterflies in her stomach.

“I do a very good job at hiding it,” Biles said. “The team, we just calm it down.”

Consider it a luxury of being so far beyond the rest of the planet. All five women earned a spot in either the all-around or event finals, or in the case of Biles and Raisman, both.

Raisman, a three-time Olympic medalist four years ago, grabbed the second spot in the individual all-around for the Americans by edging reigning Olympic champion Gabby Douglas thanks in part to what Raisman called “the best bar routine of my life.”

Rules limit each country to two gymnasts per event in the all-around and event finals, meaning even though Douglas was third overall, she’ll miss out on a chance to defend the crown she won in London. Not that she was moping. When Raisman drilled her dismount on beam, Douglas rose from her chair and gave her a hug.

A controversial selection to the five-woman team after a so-so performance at Olympic trials, Douglas validated Karolyi’s choice with steady performances all over, including a bars set that earned her a spot in the individual finals.

“She said ‘I believe in you, and you can go out and do it,'” Douglas said. “At the end of the day that means so much … because she’s very precise. It feels good.”

The top eight teams in qualifying move on to Tuesday’s team final, where the U.S. is expected to repeat the gold it won easily in London and give it to Karolyi as a retirement present. Karolyi is stepping away after the games, though she’s hardly in a hurry to get there. There are still a few more lessons to teach.

“My expectations are higher for you than anyone else’s,” she said. “What I’m trying to do is get the most out of every single person.”

No wonder Russian gymnastics star Aliya Mustafina figures everybody is playing for silver.

“It’s going to be really difficult to compete against the American team,” Mustafina said through a translator after the Russians survived a sometimes shaky qualifying session. “They are unbeatable at the moment.”

China and Russia both struggled at times on Sunday, beset by mistakes they can’t afford to make if they want to make the team finals anything more than a coronation. While each have their strengths, the truth is the U.S. has few weaknesses. The margin for error will be thinner in the three-up, three-count final. Yet after the U.S. went 16 for 16 during an occasionally showstopping 90 minutes, they hardly seem overburdened by the stakes.

“I think all of our hard work was just to show the world,” said Madison Kocian, who put up the top score on uneven bars. “I mean we’re 10 points ahead.”

Something that’s not supposed to happen.

Good luck world. It’s up to China, Russia, Great Britain, Brazil, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands to knock the Americans off their throne. How difficult will it be? Consider this: the margin between the U.S. and the Chinese on Sunday was greater than the margin between China and 12th-place Belgium.

Romania failed to qualify for the Olympics as a team for the first time in more than 40 years but will have an event finalist after Catalina Ponor finished in the top eight on beam. Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina, competing in her record seventh Olympics, reached the vault final after finishing fifth in qualifying.

The 41-year-old played coy when asked by her 17-year-old son Alisher if this is her last go-around.

“Wait and see honey,” Chusovitina said with a laugh.

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(Photo Source: AP)

The USA women’s gymnastics team obviously did not come to play in Rio – they literally vaulted ahead of the competition during the qualifying round on Sunday.

Veteran Aly Raisman and it-girl Simone Biles will advance to the all-around final, where they will battle with China, who scored second in the qualifiers. In total, Team USA scored an unprecedented 10 points higher than China on Sunday.

Team USA holds the chance to win 10 gold medals in every finals event, including vault, beams, bar, and floor exercises.

Crowd favorite Gabby Douglas opened the competition with a floor exercise, but in the end, her 14.366 score was dropped from the team total. Laurie Hernandez, Raisman, and Biles’s scores were counted towards the team total.

According to The Huffington Post, four out of five team members compete for each event, and the three highest scores count towards the team’s total number.

Next was the vault competition. Biles was utter perfection as she nailed two of the hardest vaults in the competition, scoring 16.050, the highest of any gymnast during the meet. Raisman came in second with a solid 15.766.

On the bars, Madison Kocian led the team with a high score of 15.866, while Douglas came in third behind Russia’s Aliya Mustafina, with 15.766.

But it was the beam exercise that most were looking forward to. Douglas and Biles both fell during last month’s Olympic trials. On Sunday, they didn’t disappoint, landing explosive performances. Biles came in first for Team USA with 15.633, and Hernandez came in second, scoring 15.366 and beating out Brazilian gymnast and crowd favorite, Flavia Saraiva. Douglas came in third for USA with 14.833.

Unfortunately, Douglas will not be able to compete in the finals to defend her Olympic medal for the beam exercise, due to the “two-per” rule, which says that only two gymnasts from each country are able to compete in the finals. She will, however, compete for the bars.

On Sunday, Biles picked up a slew of famous admirers:

Team USA is slated to compete in the finals on Tuesday.

SOURCE: Huffington Post, YouTube | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty, Twitter

SEE ALSO:

World Health Organization: No ‘Public Health Justification; To Cancel Or Postpone Rio Olympics Over Zika

NEW YORK (AP) — NBC announcer Al Trautwig said Monday he regrets tweeting that the adoptive mother and father of American gymnastics star Simone Biles were not her parents, a declaration that angered advocates for adoption.

Trautwig had been scolded by a woman on Twitter for not referring to Ron and Nellie Biles as the 19-year-old Olympic gymnast’s parents. Ron Biles, her maternal grandfather, and his wife Nellie adopted Simone and her sister Adria in 2000 after they spent time in foster care.

NBC ordered Trautwig to delete his tweet.

“To set the record straight, Ron and Nellie are Simone’s parents,” Trautwig said Monday.

Carrie Goldman, who lives outside of Chicago and writes a blog, “Portrait of an Adoption,” said NBC and its personnel should not minimize the role of adoptive parents. She said Trautwig should apologize to Biles; NBC had no comment on whether he would.

It’s the second public misstep in as many days for an NBC announcer, after swimming commentator Dan Hicks was ripped online for referring to the husband and coach of a Hungarian swimmer as “the guy responsible” for her strong performance. Trautwig’s case involved an athlete NBC expects to be one of the biggest stars of the Rio de Janeiro Games.

Simone Biles went to live with her grandparents in Texas while their mother struggled with drugs and alcohol in Ohio, and was adopted when the birth mother’s parental rights were terminated. Simone remains in contact with Shanon Biles but is quick to correct anyone who calls Shanon her mother. Shanon Biles is her biological mother, she says. Nellie Biles is mom.

“Mother” and “father” were also the phrases used by NBC in a profile of Biles that aired Sunday night.

Shortly thereafter, Trautwig said on the air that Simone “was raised by her grandfather and his wife and she calls them mom and dad.”

A woman on Twitter then urged Trautwig to stop calling Ron and Nellie her grandfather and his wife. “They are her parents,” she wrote. But Trautwig replied in his since-deleted tweet: “They may be mom and dad but they are NOT her parents.”

If she’s been adopted, they are her parents — legally as well as emotionally, advocates said.

“If they are parenting her — that’s what a parent does — don’t diminish the role by calling them something other than her parents,” said Chuck Johnson, president and CEO of the National Council for Adoption. “Some of us would find that offensive.”

Goldman said she hopes NBC uses the opportunity to educate viewers about adoption, given the Olympics’ big audience and Biles’ high profile. Trautwig’s statement was a good first step, she said.

“Clearly the tide of public opinion has gotten through to NBC,” she said.

Judging by some of his other tweets, Trautwig was in a cranky mood Sunday.

To one tweeter who complained about losing five years of his life every time Trautwig explained the gymnastics scoring system, the announcer replied: “Then you should be done by now.” To another who said that he’ll watch ping pong if he had to listen to Trautwig’s voice any longer, he replied: “Enjoy what is called table tennis.”

Someone with the Twitter handle “Gym Nerd” wrote to Trautwig that “you may be in Rio but at least I’m passionate about my job, and respected for it.”

“Right, and I don’t care,” Trautwig replied. “Resume treatment.”

NBC said it had no further comment on Trautwig’s social media habits.

(Photo: AP)

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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Just call them the Final Five.

Dominant. Peerless. Golden.

The U.S. women’s gymnastics team gave retiring national team coordinator Martha Karolyi a fitting send off in the Olympic finals on Tuesday night, putting on a two-hour display of precision and class. Their score of 184.897 was more than eight points clear of silver medalist Russia, a blowout that Michael Jordan’s “Dream Team” should envy.

The Americans’ second straight Olympic team triumph — and third overall — was never in doubt. From the second Laurie Hernandez drilled her opening vault to Simone Biles’ boundary-pushing floor exercise to end it, the U.S. put on an exhibition that showed how far the divide between themselves and everyone else has become.

It’s a gap that Karolyi created from scratch since taking over for husband Bela in 2001. She’s molded the U.S. program into a ponytailed juggernaut. The 73-year-old is stepping down after the games. Watching from the front row of the Rio Olympic Arena in a red jumpsuit, Karolyi watched perhaps her greatest team seem totally immune to the pressure.

Maybe that’s because for Hernandez, Biles, Gabby Douglas, Madison Kocian and Aly Raisman, the meets are the fun part of their jobs. The toughest competitions happen in quiet at the regular training camps Karolyi carefully oversees. When the lights come on, it’s time to let loose.

Biles admitted there were nerves before Sunday’s preliminaries, though it hardly looked like it while the Americans posted the highest score by more than nine points. The only moment of tension on Tuesday came early. When Hernandez was introduced to the crowd, Raisman nudged her and told her to wave, which the 16-year-old did with a toothy smile.

Barely five minutes later, the youngest member of Team USA was all business. Her double-twisting Yurchenko — basically a roundoff into a pair of twists — put the machine in motion. Raisman, who won three medals in London four years ago and seemed to be on the outside looking in as last as this spring, followed with perhaps the finest vault of her long career. When Biles drilled her Amanar and put up a 15.933 — the highest of the night — the U.S. was already on top of the leaderboard.

Yet it’s not just enough for Karolyi for her team to win. She stopped measuring the Americans against everyone else long ago. Karolyi wants there to be no doubt. And there wasn’t.

The U.S. went through 28 rotations over two days, just like the other seven teams that made the team final. Unlike the other seven, the Americans didn’t slip off uneven bars. They didn’t hop off balance beams. It’s that ability to avoid mistakes when it counts that’s as much a testament to Karolyi’s meticulous preparation as their dynamic and unparalleled gymnastics.

While the gold was never in doubt, you wouldn’t have known about it by watching Karolyi. She clutched the white railing in front of her during Biles’ floor routine, nodding with approval with each gravity-escaping tumbling pass.

Russia, which wasn’t sure it would even be included in the games until just days before the opening ceremonies as the IOC and sport federations sorted out punishments for a national doping scandal, won silver. China took bronze.

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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Forget the pressure. Forget the hype. Simone Biles is immune to all of it.

Dynamic on vault. Effortless on beam. Jaw-dropping on floor. Brilliant all over. And now, finally, an Olympic champion.

The 19-year-old American soared to the all-around title on Thursday, putting the gap between herself and the rest of the world on full display under the Olympic spotlight. Her total of 62.198 was well clear of silver medalist and “Final Five” teammate Aly Raisman and Russian bronze medalist Aliya Mustafina.

Biles became the fourth straight American woman to win the all-around title and fifth overall while cementing her reputation as the best of her generation and perhaps ever. She burst into tears when her final total was posted and her long journey to this moment ended.

Biles has spent the last three years dominating her sport, winning 15 world championship medals — including 10 gold — with routines so astonishing in their mix of ambition and precision that 1984 Olympic champion Mary Lou Retton called her “the greatest gymnast I’ve ever seen.”

One last test awaited in Brazil, a contest not so much between Biles and the rest of the field but between herself and the burden of oversized expectations. Anything less than heading back to her family’s home in Spring, Texas, with a fistful of golds would be seen as a disappointment.

Biles earned the first one on Tuesday while serving as the exclamation point to retiring national team coordinator Martha Karolyi’s going away party. While Biles insisted she’s never looked ahead during her long run at the top, that’s not exactly true.

A portion of her floor exercise routine — the one that includes her signature tumbling pass — is set to Latin music that would fit right at home in the street right outside the Rio Olympic Arena. It’s not a coincidence.

The girl adopted by her grandparents as a toddler and discovered by coach Aimee Boorman’s mother during a field trip to the gym where Boorman was coaching has become a force. She hasn’t lost an all-around competition since the summer of 2013, a winning streak that should go for as long as Biles wants it to.

Though Mustafina took a small lead through two rotations, it was a mirage. Balance beam and floor exercise — where Biles is the defending world champion — lay in wait. She went back in front with a 15.433 on beam — and capped it with a 15.933 on floor. Raisman hugged her gently as they awaited the final score — a mere formality — and tears appeared around Biles’ glittery red, white and blue eyeliner when the vision she once wrote in a scrapbook became a reality.

Raisman’s performance was a bit of revenge from four years ago, when she tied for third but lost the bronze to Mustafina on a tiebreaker. This time, the 22-year-old team captain the Americans call “grandma” was well ahead. She blew kisses to the crowd after her floor exercise, overcome by a comeback that at times seemed in doubt.

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(Photo: AP)

This is getting to be BIG fun … watching our sisters and brothers and Simone Biles in particular, rack up the medals in Rio at the 2016 Olympics.

And speaking of Miss Biles, she added a third gold medal to her haul, easily winning the women’s vault final Sunday afternoon.

The 19-year-old averaged 15.966 during her two vaults, well clear of silver medalist Maria Paseka of Russia and bronze medalist Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland.

Biles is the first American woman to win Olympic gold on vault. Her three gold medals in Rio also are the most by an American female gymnast in one Olympics.

But she’s still not through. She will have a chance at more gold later this week when she competes in the event finals on balance beam and floor exercise.

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Source: Ezra Shaw / Getty

According to The Los Angeles Times, in the vault final, gymnasts vault twice and the scores are averaged. On her first pass, Biles scored a 15.900, landing with a tiny step back, and on her second, she scored a 16.033 for an impressive 15.966 average score. The silver went to Russia’s Maria Paseka (15.253) and the bronze to Switzerland’s Giulia Steingruber (15.216).

Biles’ win also marks the first time an American gymnast has won a title for this particular apparatus.

According to Reuters, Biles said taking home the gold for the vault is incredibly gratifying since she’s never been able to do it at the world championships.

“It was good, I feel very excited because having gone to worlds and having two silvers and a bronze it means a lot to me … It’s something that I wanted so badly,” she stressed.

And of course, the congrats are pouring in:

https://twitter.com/04jduke/status/764915366296510464

Oh, and if you needed even more of Simone’s #BlackExcellence, peep her new Nike commercial to Beyoncé’s song “Jealous.”

Biles has two more opportunities to win an unprecedented five gold medals with the balance beam individual contest on Monday and the floor exercise on Tuesday.

We’re rooting for you Simone! Good luck!

DON’T MISS:

Black Women Are Killing The Olympic Games In Rio

Black Girl Magic: Simone Biles Takes Home The Gold For All-Around Gymnastics Final

Gabby Douglas Doesn’t Owe Anyone Her Patriotism

Nestled among the ton of accolades bestowed upon Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles and Simone Manuel is a heartfelt Instagram message from LeBron James.

The nucleus of NBA’s world champion Cleveland Cavaliers watched the pair make history Thursday night alongside his daughter.

LeBron made a point to tell the Olympic stars how inspirational they are to “young black girls.” He captioned the photo, ‘Simone + Simone = Gold!!! Congrats young Queens!! Truly inspiring for so many especially young black girls. My daughter was watching with me. #GoUSA #GoldStandard’.

Go girls!

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(Photo Source: Twitter)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Simone Biles is no longer Rio de Janeiro’s juggernaut. A mistake on the balance beam prevented the American gymnastics star from a record-tying fourth gold at the Rio de Janeiro Games, which were dogged Monday by rain, wind and fire.

Downpours delayed the track and field program in the evening, where world champion Allyson Felix sought her fifth Olympic gold medal, in the women’s 400-meter final later Monday. She ended up with a silver medal, as Bahamian sprinter Shaunae Miller leaned at the finish line for the win. Felix still becomes the most decorated female track athlete in Olympic history.

In the morning, there was too little wind, then too much at the sailing regatta on Guanabara Bay, where men’s and women’s medal races were postponed until Tuesday. In the afternoon, smoke and ash from a wind-whipped wildfire billowed over the field hockey stadium in Deodoro.

Boxing may have to weather another storm of its own after a surprising decision in the men’s heavyweight gold medal fight, where boos cascaded down from the crowd when Evgeny Tischenko, of Russia, was announced as the unanimous winner over Vassiliy Levit, of Kazakhstan, who looked like the winner.

Biles’ blunder allowed Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands to take the gold medal and Laurie Hernandez of the U.S. to slip past Biles for the silver. It also ended Biles’ bid to become the first female gymnast to win five golds in a single Olympics.

Already a three-time gold medalist (all-around, team and vault) when she walked onto the floor on Monday, Biles was a favorite on beam as the reigning world champion.

She topped qualifying last week and had just completed the most difficult part of her routine — a tumbling pass that stretches the length of the 4-inch wide slab of wood — when she missed the landing following her punch front flip.

A fresh round of troubles tormented South America’s first Olympics on Monday:

—The German Olympic team said canoe slalom coach Stefan Henze died from injuries sustained in a car crash last week.

—The Egyptian judo athlete who refused to shake his Israeli opponent’s hand after losing a first-round heavyweight fight was sent home.

—The Olympic Broadcasting Service said seven bystanders sustained minor injuries when a television camera it operates plummeted about 30 feet in the Olympic park.

—South Korean cyclist Park Sang-hoon was taken from the velodrome on a stretcher with his neck immobilized after a crash multi-discipline omnium competition .

—And Usain Bolt, the co-star of these games along with Michael Phelps, said that a tight schedule slowed down the sprinters in the 100 meters Sunday. Bolt blamed the hour turnaround from the semifinals to the finals for his lumbering start before he recovered to win his third consecutive gold medal and retain the title as the world’s fastest man.

“I don’t know who decided that,” Bolt said. “It was really stupid. So, that’s why the race was slow.”

Other highlights from Day 10:

LONE RUSSIAN : The lone Russian track and field athlete at the Olympics has won her appeal to compete in Rio. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled early Monday that Darya Klishina is eligible to take part in Tuesday’s long jump qualifying because she has been based outside of Russia for the last three years and has been subjected to regular drug testing.

GRECO-GREATS : Cuban heavyweight Mijain Lopez again bested Turkish rival Riza Kayaalp, putting him in the company of wrestling great Alexander Karelin. Lopez beat Kayaalp 6-0 to capture his third Greco-Roman gold medal. Lopez joins Karelin and Carl Westergren of Sweden as the only wrestlers with three Olympic titles in the classic discipline.

GOLF AGAIN : Brazilian native Miriam Nagl has been chosen to hit the opening tee shot Wednesday for women’s golf, at the Olympics for the first time since 1900 in France. On Sunday, Justin Rose won the first golfing gold medal since 1904 in St. Louis when he beat Henrik Stenson by two strokes on the Olympic course.

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Source: Alex Livesey / Getty

All-around and vault champ Simone Biles didn’t win her fourth gold on Monday, but did take home the bronze medal in the individual Balance Beam competition.

According to USA Today, while Biles was anticipated to win the gold, a wobble that almost took her off the beam resulted in a deducted 14.733 final score. But the 19-year-old Texan stressed that that she isn’t beating herself about it. 

“The rest of the routine was still pretty good,” Biles said, “so I can’t be too disappointed in myself.”

But she added that the pressure to win is high and it is hard to block all that out.

“It’s something that you guys shove into my head, and at 19, I can’t put that much stress on myself because I am only 19. I think you guys want it more than I do because I just want to perform the routines that I practice,” she said. 

Yet, her longtime coach Aimee Boorman stressed that despite the bronze medal, she too saw Biles performance as “a triumph.”

“Besides that error, the rest of the routine was excellent. I can’t even critique it. Sometimes your feet slip,” she said. 

Yes, sometimes they do.

At the end of night, Team USA was heavily represented on the podium with 16-year-old Laurie Hernandez winning the silver with a 15.333 and Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands the gold with a 15.466.

You better werk Laurie!

Source: Laurence Griffiths / Getty

Biles has one more opportunity to win an unprecedented five medals with the individual floor exercise on Tuesday night, where too is expected to win on her favorite apparatus.

“I think it’s a very good way to end it,” Biles said.

We’re rooting for you, Simone! Good luck!