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RIO DE JANEIRO – Simone Biles spent Sunday morning in the warm-up gym thinking not of history but perfection.
When it didn’t happen – and really, it never does in gymnastics anymore – the 19-year-old star settled for a pretty sweet consolation prize: a third gold medal in Rio.
Twisting and flipping through the air with explosive precision, Biles easily captured gold in the women’s vault final on Sunday. Her two-vault average of 15.966 was more than .7 better than silver medalist Maria Paseka of Russia and bronze medalist Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland. The margin between first and second was greater than second and eighth, a symbol of the canyon Biles created between herself and her peers.
Biles’ triumph is the first in the Olympics by an American woman on vault, and her first vault title in a major international competition. It’s heady territory, though Biles wasn’t quite so thrilled when her feet moved just a touch on the landing of her Amanar.