The American women’s gymnastics team was, yet again, no match for their competitors at the World Gymnastics Championships in Doha, Qatar this past week, taking home a massive haul of eight medals.
On Wednesday, the team (composed of Simone Biles, Morgan Hurd, Riley McCusker, Grace McCallum, Kara Eaker, and alternate Ragan Smith) performed flawlessly in the team final to win the gold medal, successively defending their world champion title. The American women have now won the gold medal in the team event seven years in a row.
The American women again took the title in the team competition, reasserting their dominance in the international field. (Credit: Twitter)
Biles was the star of the championships, and many fans were anxious to see how she would perform since she took a year off from training after her spectacular performance at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where she won five medals. Competing against her teammate Morgan Hurd, who won the all-around at the World Championships last year, some had questions about whether Biles would be able to take the title again. She was also battling a kidney stone, for which she had to visit the emergency room less than 24 hours before the all-around competition.
Biles’ performance got off to a rocky start – she had an uncharacteristic fall on vault, followed by a fall on balance beam. Still, she managed to pull off the win, and the running joke in the gymnastics community – that she could fall in every event and still win – held true for her this year. The difficulty in her routines and her clean performances on bars and floor were enough to put her atop the podium yet again. With this win, Biles became a five-time all-around champion. Mai Murakami of Japan finished second, still almost two whole points behind Biles, and Hurd finished third.
Simone Biles won the gold and Morgan Hurd won the silver in the women’s all-around competition. (Credit: Twitter)
The U.S. women fared well in the apparatus finals as well. At least one American gymnast qualified for each of the four events. Biles took gold in the vault and floor finals, silver in the bars final (her first bars medal), and bronze in the beam final. She is now the first female gymnast to have won a medal on every apparatus since the Russian gymnast Yelena Shushunova did so in 1987. Hurd qualified for the bars and floor finals, but only medalled in the floor final, taking home the silver medal. Kara Eaker, the youngest member of the women’s team this year, qualified for the balance beam final, but a fall early in her routine put her out of contention for a medal.
The American women proved, yet again, that they’re the best in the world for a reason. With a haul of eight medals – four gold, two silver, and two bronze – they proved that they are truly unstoppable.
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