Photo from Google Images
I was in 7th grade when the Magnificent Seven won the 1996 All-Around team gold in Atlanta. My English teacher, Ms. Dalton, used to call me Dominique Moceanu when I would be running down the hall to make it to class before the tardy bell. Like Moceanu, we both were barley 80 pounds, hadn’t hit puberty and stood out because we were the shortest among our friends. Or maybe because we both were had that awkward bang hairstyle stage. I loved being called Dominique! But let’s be honest, I was no Olympic gymnast. I still loved to watch the sport and I never thought I’d see a team as great the Magnificent Seven. And then, I watched the Final Five.
2012 Gold medalists Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas returned to the 2016 team. Joining the Olympic champions is three-peat all-around champion Simone Biles; the number one gymnast in the world! Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian completed the powerhouse of the Final Five.
Looking back at the Magnificent Seven they were gymnast, but the Final Five, they are athletes! The muscle and pure strength of these five women is absolutely incredible. Their power is explosive and their technique is pure perfection. These five women make “fly high and stick the landing” look so effortless. There is nothing easy about anything they do.
The team name was to honor 73-year old Martha Karolyi, the national team coordinator in her final Olympics. Karolyi and her husband, Bela, have built the foundation of American gymnastics for more than 30 years and have left the legacy for what will continue to shine gold for team USA.
Team USA scored 184.897 to beat second-place Russia by more than eight points. EIGHT POINTS! To put that beat down into prospective, a point in women’s gymnastics is equivalent to 2 or 3 touchdowns in football. The Final Five’s point victory over second placed Russia was the largest in Olympic women’s team final since the 1960 Olympic games in Rome. (The Soviet Union defeated Czechoslovakia by 8.997 points.) But you really can’t compare the degree of difficulty from then to now. Team USA just dominated women’s gymnastics and now with back-to-back Olympic gold medals, 2020 is looking like another star spangled awesome podium!
The team gold was their first priority and they accomplished gold. On Thursday, Biles and Raisman will compete in the women’s individual all-around competition. Expect to see another gold and silver medal to add to team USA. (Only two are allowed to compete from each country or Gabby Douglas, the defending gold medalist would give team USA three more medals.)
On Sunday, Douglas and Kocian compete for the individual uneven bars and Biles goes for gold in the individual vault. Monday Biles and Hernandez compete for individual gold on beam and on Tuesday Biles and defending Olympic champion, Raisman compete for gold in floor exercise. Simone Biles could sweep all four events and take home five gold medals. The individual events are team USA’s to lose and with the talent of these five women, five more gold medals should belong to team USA!