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Simone Biles Is Dominating The 2016 Gymnastics

by Erin Corbett

On Thursday, Team USA's up and coming gymnastics star Simone Biles competed in the individual all-around competition and she won the gold medal. Biles has been on fire since making her Olympic debut in Rio, and she has proven to be a tough athlete to beat this year. As one of the starring members of Team USA's "Final Five," you'll definitely want to watch Biles in the individual all-around competition.

In a New York Times video post on the rising star, former USA gymnast and 2008 Olympic all-around gold medalist Nastia Liukin said, "At this point in time, nobody can beat Simone Biles. Normally the separations between first and second place could be three-tenths or five-tenths, and she goes out and wins by one or two points."

Biles is definitely making a name for herself at the 2016 Olympics, and she's killing it on beam, vault, and floor. Ahead of Thursday's competition, she was expected to make some major wins this year because she is not only specialized in one single event. Biles competed closely against her teammate and captain Aly Raisman in the individual all-around, and they took first and second place, making this the first year since 2008 that two USA gymnasts took the podium in the event — in 2008 it was Liukin with gold and Shawn Johnson with silver.

Toward the beginning of the final competition, Biles was in second place behind Aliya Mustafina who was representing Russia's team, with Raisman following in third place.

As the beam event started — an event where Biles performs strongly — she kicked off her group's rotation with a solid performance, including a series of flips and a solid dismount. NPR reported that Biles' final score on the beam was a 15.433, which it noted was the highest score of the day. And as her performance in that event then led into the final event, which was the floor competition, Mustafina was 1.5 points behind Biles. Biles dominates on the floor. And it was her floor routine in Thursday's events that secured the gold medal.

By the end of Thursday's events, Biles had made history as the best gymnast in the world. The New York Times reports that Biles joins Mary Lou Retton, Carly Patterson, Nastia Liukin and Gabby Douglas, all of whom have competed for the US and won the Olympic all-around competition.

Biles has certainly made a name for herself and set the bar really high for Olympic women's gymnastics moving forward.