Friday, October 30, 2015

2015 World Gymnastics Championships

Simone Biles became the first woman to ever win three consecutive gold medals in the all-around at the World Gymnastics Championships yesterday. After a shaky start, with a score of 60.388, Biles claimed the gold above US teammate and reining Olympic champion, Gabby Douglas, by 1.083 points.
There is no doubt that Biles will make the Olympic team in 2016 as long as she continues to perform at this level and avoids injury. Biles is the current favorite to win gold in the all-around competition in the 2016 Olympic Games.

Gabby Douglas became the first reining Olympic all around champion to medal in world competition since 1981, taking home the silver with a score of 59.316.

Douglas has shared plans to upgrade her routines by the time the Olympics come around, giving her a higher difficulty start value which could help her surpass Biles in all-around competition if Biles doesn't upgrade.

Due to the controversial two-per-country rule, Olympic gold-medalist Aly Raisman was unable to compete in the all-around competition, despite qualifying fifth overall. However, Raisman was able to put up high scores for the women's team in the team finals.

If Raisman continues to improve, she is very likely to make the Olympic team. With the two-per-country rule still in place, she isn't expected to qualify in the Olympic all-around over Biles or Douglas. However, she shocked the world in 2012 after qualifying for all-around competition over favorite Jordyn Wieber, so don't count her out just yet.

The women's team once again won the gold in team competition with a score of 181.388.
While teammates Maggie Nichols and Madison Kocian are generally consistent competitors and were a large part in bringing home the team gold, it is unclear if they will make the Olympic team with Raisman, Douglas, and Biles putting up such high scores and some great junior elite talent coming up.

Biles, Douglas, and Nichols will be competing in event finals October 31-November 1.

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