AFP
Rio de Janeiro, August 17: US star Simone Biles got the golden finale she craved for here with a fourth women’s crown but former gymnastics power China left the Games without a title for the first time in 32 years.
The 19-year-old Biles wrapped up 10 days of incredible gymnastics with her trademark dominant display of acrobatics and tumbling on the floor in the Rio Olympic Arena.
The 4’9” gymnast from Texas got the crowd behind her with her Samba routine to lead a US 1-2 ahead of Aly Raisman. She scored 15.966 points with 2012 Olympic floor champion Raisman taking silver with 15.500. Britain’s Amy Tinkler (14.933) won bronze.
But it was a bittersweet finale for the tiny American, a day after her record push for five gold at one Olympics came off balance on the beam.
“I just wanted to end on a good note,” said Biles. “It was nerve wracking but there was no room for nerves. It’s been an amazing experience. To think of what I’ve won I couldn’t have asked for more.”
A wobble on the beam Monday handed Biles her first defeat on the apparatus in a finals since 2013. She took bronze. She becomes the fifth woman to win four gold at the same Olympics joining Hungarian Agnes Keleti (1956), Soviet Larissa Latynina (1956), Czech Vera Caslavska (1968) and Romanian Ecaterina Szabo (1984).
Earlier in the men’s segment Ukrainian gymnast Oleg Verniaiev won on the parallel bars as Germany’s Fabian Hambuechen added the horizontal bar gold to his silver and bronze from London and Beijing.
Meanwhile China slumped to their worst Games since taking a first gold in 1984. Their last men’s hopes were on the parallel bars – Deng Shudi finished fourth and You Hao last after a fall on his dismount.