2016 Olympics | Highlights from Women's Qualification

The United States Dominance 
The United States come into these Olympics as the favorites to win gold. During the fourth subdivision of Qualifications, they showed the world exactly why they are the favorites. For the first time in Olympic history, the US team not only qualified at least one girl to every final, but they did so in a dominating fashion-- taking the top spot on each event. To nobody's surprise, the US heads into team finals as the number one team, finishing a whopping 10 points ahead of the second place qualifier, China. For the all-around competition, the 3-time reigning World Champion Simone Biles will look to officially sweep the quadrennium with the one thing she's missing--the all-around Olympic gold. Aly Raisman, who finished fourth in 2012, will try to gain redemption and secure her first all-around medal on the World or Olympic stage. The vault final is the only final that the USA only qualified one athlete (simply because no other athlete competes two vaults on the team.) That athlete is Simone Biles. Simone does two very difficult vaults and if she competes how she normally does, she will easily get a medal and likely gold. On bars, it will be the reigning uneven bar World Champion, Madison Kocian and the reigning Olympic all-around Champion, Gabby Douglas. Madison qualified into the bar final in first place with 15.866 and Gabby qualified in third with a 15.766. It will be a tough competition, but it's very possible for the US to secure another medal here as long as they hit. On beam, it will be Simone Biles, who qualified in the top spot once again with a 15.633 and Laurie Hernandez, the youngest member of the team, who qualified in second with a 15.366 after delivering a rock solid performance. The last final will be the floor final which features the reigning World Champion on that event with Biles and the reigning Olympic Champion on that event with Raisman. Biles topped the field with a 15.733 and Raisman was right behind her with a 15.275. With so many medal possibilities on the horizon, Rio is shaping up to be the USA's most successful Olympics ever in history.



Flavia Saravia and the Brazilian team  
The reaction from the home crowd was much anticipated heading into these Games and during Qualifications we witnessed it first hand. The energy in the arena was like no other when the Brazilian women took to the floor in subdivision 3. It's unusual to see a gymnastics crowd so rowdy... up on their feet and cheering loud, even when there was mistakes. As expected, the crowd really loved their hometown girl Flavia Saravia, who lives within walking distance to the arena. She won over the crowd with her fun floor routine and exceptional beam work. Saravia qualified into the beam finals in third with a score of 15.133. The draw for event finals has her going last, which will be an exciting way to wrap up that final. The Brazilian crowd will have plenty more opportunities to cheer on their team; Brazil qualified to the team finals in fifth, Rebecca Andrade and Flavia will compete in the all-around final (Andrade qualified in 3rd) and of course they will get the pleasure of watching Flavia on beam in the beam final.



Tutya Yilmaz Almost Making Beam Finals
A new fan favorite following Qualifications is Turkey's Tutya Yilmaz. She gained a lot of respect from the gymternet after nailing a rather difficult beam routine (6.3 start value) for a score of 14.500! Her score withheld all the way until the last subdivision where she was eventually knocked down to 11th place, just two spots shy of making the final. In a sport that is typically dominated by the same countries time and time again, it's nice to sometimes see contenders from countries that don't have top gymnastics programs. It's also nice to see athletes hitting their routines when it matters most. I mean, how cool is it to have your best beam routine at the Olympic Games? Fun fact: Tutya is only the second female gymnast to represent Turkey at an Olympic Games!

Türkiye'yi artistik jimnastikte temsil eden @tutyayilmaz'ın denge barındaki performansını izleyemeyenler için pic.twitter.com/b7lkDYFCbd

— Koray DURKAL (@kdurkal) August 8, 2016

Eythora Thorsdottir Defines Artistic Gymnastics
Although she fell during her floor routine in Qualifications, Eythora still displayed a truly beautiful and captivating routine complete with stunning turn sequences and dramatic facial expressions to match her dance. Fans will get to enjoy Thorsdottir's floor routine two more times these Olympics as she is qualified to the team final with the Netherlands team and the all-around final.

Ellie Downie's Perseverance
Despite having a scary fall that resulted in having to walk away without completing her floor routine, Ellie returned to the floor for the final event of the night to help the British team secure a spot in the team final. Right after the fall, in which Downie landed on her neck, worry filled the arena and the minds of viewers at home as Ellie was taken off the competition floor. However, Ellie informed the coaches that she was fine and came back strong like the fighter she is to compete not just one vault, but two, with the hopes of qualifying to event finals. Her courageous performance qualified her to the all-around final and helped Great Britain qualify to the team final as well.

Oksana Chusovitina. Period. 
From the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona to the 2016 Olympics in Rio, the 41 year old Oksana Chusovitina hasn't slowed down. It's crazy to think that many of the gymnasts competing in Rio weren't even alive when Oksana was competing in her first Olympics. Now she is on her record breaking seventh Olympics and still keeping up with her competitors, some of which are the age of her son. After her performance in Qualifications, Oksana has qualified to the vault final with the hopes of winning her third Olympic medal. (She won gold in 1992 and silver in 2008) She played it safe in Qualifications to secure her spot in the final, but Oksana is capable of competing one of the most difficult vaults in the sport of gymnastics-- a front handspring double front. If she successfully completes that vault, Oksana could find herself on the medal podium.