EVERETT — The crowd at Xfinity Arena showed up eager to cheer on the powerful United States women’s gymnastics team on Saturday night, and the star-studded Americans did nothing to disappoint.
With the same prowess they used to win world team championships in 2014 and 2015, the U.S. easily soared to the team gold medal. In an evening session that included Canada, Japan and New Zealand, the Americans finished with a whopping 243.200 points, well ahead of runner-up Canada (219.100).
Leading the way for the U.S. was Simone Biles, the 19-year-old sensation from Columbus, Ohio. Biles, who won a remarkable 10 gold medals at the past three world championships, was the hands-down all-around winner, totaling 62.450 points on floor exercise, vault, uneven bars and balance beam.
American Aly Raisman received the all-around silver medal and Japan’s Nagi Kajita the bronze medal. The U.S. actually had the top five places in all-around scoring (Laurie Hernandez third, Brenna Dowell fourth and Ragan Smith fifth), but each country is limited to two event medals so the bronze went to Kajita.
Biles essentially stole the show by posting the evening’s top scores in floor exercise, vaulting and balance beam. She finished third on the uneven bars.
Competing for the first time since the world championships last fall, Biles admitted to subtle mistakes here and there. “But it’s good that I still have things to improve,” she said. “I just think that’s good for the beginning of the year, rather than to have it so perfect.”
Martha Karolyi, coordinator of the U.S. national team, said she was quite pleased with her squad’s performance.
“The team showed great consistency,” she said. The Americans had no falls throughout the evening, she pointed out, and “that’s the No. 1 goal. So that was very good.
“We also saw areas where we need to do some more refinements,” she said. “Because it’s never completely perfect, and our goal is to get as close as possible to perfection. So we know what we need to work on, but the girls competed confidently and handled it well and showed very good composure.”
The Americans opened on floor exercise, and that event alone was almost worth the price of admission. Biles, going last among the Americans, showed off her remarkable strength and athleticism in debuting a new routine that totaled 16.050 points.
“I think the crowd really liked it, so that’s a good sign,” she said of the new routine. “So I’ll keep it.”
Raisman, the gold medal winner in floor exercise at the 2012 Olympic Games, was likewise superb, albeit with a less difficult routine, to place second with 15.600 points.
Though Xfinity Arena was not quite filled to capacity, the crowd — many of them enthusiastic young gymnasts — made up for the no-shows with lots of noisy applause and cheering.
“That actually helped me,” Raisman said. “I literally felt like I was going to throw up before the meet because I was so nervous, but then I heard the little kids cheering for me and it calmed me down.”
There will be difficult decisions for Karolyi and other team officials in the months ahead. Maggie Nichols and Madison Kocian, both members of the world championship team, are out with injuries. Two others from that team, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Skinner, were not included on the team coming to Everett.
Only five women will comprise the U.S. team headed to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this summer, “and we don’t even know who the team is going to be,” Raisman said. “It’s insane. … I feel like we could easily send two teams. There’s like 10 girls (in the running) and we’re all just trying to prove to (Karolyi) that we want to be on that team.”
In the trampoline competition, Samantha Smith of Canada edged American Shaylee Dunavin for the gold medal, while Dmitrii Ushakov of Russia was the winner in the men’s competition ahead of Jeffrey Gluckstein of the United States.
The three-day championships wrap up Sunday with the event finals for both men and women. The juniors start at noon, the seniors at 6 p.m.
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