Simone Biles and Aly Raisman went 1-2 in the women’s floor exercise, the last individual final of the Rio Olympics for the women. Raisman was looking to defend her Olympic title, but it was the Olympic All-Around champion who edged out the defending champ on this apparatus for her fourth gold medal of these Games, becoming the fourth gymnast to win four golds along with Larissa Latynina in 1956, Vera Caslavska in 1968, and Ekaterina Szabo in 1984.

Biles finishes these Games with five medals, four of them gold. Raisman finishes with two silvers and a gold.

Tinkler’s Strong Routine Puts Her Ahead Halfway Through

Mai Murakami of Japan started things off. She got through her first tumbling pass, a double twisting, double layout, fine but had a little trouble on her second pass, needing to hop a bit on the landing. She ran into more trouble whilst in one of her dancing portions, struggling on one of her turns, but she finished strong. She scored a 14.533, a disappointing score in her mind as she was looking for a little higher score, but the judges took more than what she expected on her Wolf Turn.

Wang Yan of China followed Murakami. She started with a perfect landing on her double twisting, double back then followed it up with a beautiful second pass with a one and a half twist, jumping into the punch front straight after. It was a nearly flawless routine after that, with only one tiny hop on her dismount to finish things off. She scored a 14.666 to move into the lead after two gymnasts.

Erika Fasana was one of two Italians in the floor final. Just like Wang, she started off her passage with a double twisting, double back. This was going to be a familiar sight for the judges today and seeing all of the same tumbling passes might make them compare rather than judging on solely what they see. She only did three tumbling passes, meaning she started with a lower difficulty score compared to her competitors who do four, but still managed to get her start value at a 6.1. She moved into second over Murakami due to a higher execution score.

Amy Tinkler of Great Britain was hoping to move ahead of the gymnasts who went before her. She was the World bronze medalist in this event last year so her credentials are very good for this event. The crowd got into it right away, noticing her music was “Pretty Woman”. She opened up with two difficult tumbling passes, a full-twisting double and then a double twisting, double back, the latter saw her just hold onto that landing. She finished strong by sticking her landing on her final pass. Her score of a 14.933 put her well ahead of Wang of China halfway through the competition.

Tinker of Great Britain had to do much waiting after going fourth, but it was worth the wait as she won bronze in the end (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Tinker of Great Britain had to do much waiting after going fourth, but it was worth the wait as she won bronze in the end (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Biles Delivers Big Time

Early on, we were going to see the move called “The Biles”, a double layout with a half-twist. That was her second tumbling pass, as she flew into the air unbelievably high. You could see her personality shine in her routine with her music getting the crowd into it as it was very rhythmic plus the song that was in her passage was the Black Eyed Peas’ “Mas Que Nada”. Barring a few hops on her landings, it was another unbelievable routine, scoring her a 15.966 to put her in the lead by over a point.

Biles performing a tumbling pass (Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
Biles performing a tumbling pass (Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland was hoping for a second individual medal after winning bronze in the vault earlier in these Games and was one of the main contenders outside of the two Americans, coming in as the reigning European Champion. She already ran into some early trouble, nearly going out of bounds but stayed in, painting the corner by the tiniest of margins.

The struggles continued as she put her hands to the mat on her landing on her double twisting, double back then stepped out. After nailing her following pass with ease, she fell short once again on another pass as it all looked doom and gloom for the Swiss who was looking to make history by winning a second medal in gymnastics after becoming the first.

She limped off in pain after, which might have been a result of coming up short on a couple of passes. She scored an 11.8, which put her in last, well behind the other competitors and ensured Biles of her fifth Olympic medal.

Raisman Just Falls Short, Settles For Silver

Aly Raisman was second-to-last up, knowing she needed a big score to knock off Biles. Her first pass was loaded, starting with one-and-half twists, followed by a double Arabian straight into a punch front layout. Her music is very familiar to those who watched her in London and throughout the years as the crowd was beginning to feel it.

Her second tumbling pass was flawless, finishing it off with a perfect landing. She went back-to-back flawless passes, barring the tiniest bit of leg separation, as she was really putting herself in fantastic position to challenge Biles for that gold medal. Raisman finished it off with another beautiful pass with just a tiny hop at the end, as the three current podium sitters could not help but applaud another phenomenal floor routine from Raisman, which was likely going to be the last of her career. She finished with a 15.5, only scoring an 8.9 on execution, something which came as a bit of a shock to some people who thought she would score much higher. That put her in second behind Biles, knocking Wang off the podium.

Raisman doing a tumbling pass in her floor routine (Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
Raisman doing a tumbling pass in her floor routine (Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

Vanessa Ferrari was the final competitor and second Italian in the field. She knew anything higher than a 14.933 gets her on the podium and a practically flawless routine would see her challenge for silver potentially. Since her difficulty was a 6.2, she would have needed perfection to challenge Biles, and even then, it may have not been enough. Ferrari was using her music from when she won the World Championships in 2006 as a tribute to that performance as she was hoping to deliver that same kind of performance. It was a familiar start for those who were watching as Ferrari kicked her tumbling off with a double twisting, double.

She had a little leg separation on her double layout and had a couple of hops here and there. On her final pass, she moonwalked a bit out of her final landing and finished off her final floor routine of her career, walking off in tears into the arms of her coach. She finished with a 14.766, putting her in fourth, giving her back-to-back fourth place finishes on the floor final and giving Britain their first ever Olympic medal in this event with Tinkler.

Raisman, Biles, and Tinkler celebrate their medals on the podium (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Raisman, Biles, and Tinkler celebrate their medals on the podium (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
VAVEL Logo
About the author
Noel John Alberto
Filipino-American sports journalist from Toms River, NJ. UMBC Graduate and aspiring physical therapist. Tennis editor and multi-sport coordinator for VAVEL USA. Writer for Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Serie A sections of VAVEL UK. Sports aficionado. Host of the On The Line tennis podcast.