Individual All-Around, Women

One of the sensations of London 2012 was America’s Gabby Douglas, who was just 16 when she won the individual all-round title. In Rio she was hoping to become the first defending champion to retain it since Věra Čáslavská in 1968, but it was not to be as she fell foul of the two-gymnasts-per-country rule after finishing third in qualifying behind compatriots Simone Biles and Aly Raisman. Had she qualified, however, it would have been difficult to see her retain her title because of the vast superiority of her team-mate Biles, who was in a class of her own

At just over 142cm, Simone Biles was the shortest member on the entire US Olympic team in Rio, but underneath that petite frame lay an awesome gymnast. She was so dominant that team-mate Aly Raisman joked that for the remaining gymnasts, winning silver would be their gold! Biles was just too young, by three months, to compete at London but since those Games she had dominated the sport and won 10 gold medals at the last three World Championships including the all-round title on each occasion.

She opened her quest for her second gold medal of the Rio Games with a score of 15.866 on the vault to lead after the first rotation. Surprisingly, she slipped to second after scoring 14,988 on the uneven bars, her worst discipline. This allowed the Russian Aliya Mustafina to take a slim 0.034 of a point lead at the halfway stage. But Biles was back in her rightful position at the top of the leader board after a sublime routine on the beam, which included an amazing spin that earned her 15.433 points. Her final routine on the floor was just as awesome and was rewarded with 15.899 points as she won by an unprecedented 2.1 points. Team-mate Raisman took silver and the Russian Mustafina won the bronze medal to add to the one she won at London 2012 and in the 2013 World Championships. Biles’ win meant the USA became the first country to provide the winner of the individual all-round title at four consecutive Olympics.

To put into perspective how remarkable Biles’ performance was, her winning margin was 2.100 points, and since the event was launched in 1952, only one other gymnast has won by more than one point, and that was in 1968 when Čáslavská won by 1.4 points. Even more remarkably, the sum total of all winning margins in the 10 Olympics between 1976 and 2012 was 2.136, marginally better that Biles’ winning margin from just one Games.