US Women's Gymnasts Dominate: Legendary Coach Sheds Tears Over Team's Phenomenal Performance [VIDEO]
The United States Women's Gymnastics team managed to accomplish two very difficult tasks on Tuesday. One, they were able to handily beat the competition, leaving Russia and China's teams in the dust. More importantly, the team of young gymnasts was able to make stone-cold national team coordinator and gymnastics legend Martha Karolyi shed tears of pride and joy.
The U.S. team's dominance during the entire event was very prominent, with 10 of the team's 12 routines receiving scores 15.000 and higher. By the end of the event, the American team was a full 8.2 points ahead of Russia, its closest rival.
It was a fitting ending to the legendary career of one of the most respected, and somewhat feared, gymnastics coaches. Over the decades, Karolyi, the 73-year-old, Romanian-born gymnastics veteran, has emerged as one of the premiere faces of the sport. Her husband, who coached the U.S. women's team back in 1996, is also considered as one of the most respected personalities in gymnastics, after he led the team to victory 20 years ago.
The performance of the five young women was nothing short of phenomenal, with Laurie Hernandez setting the pace with a 15.100 performance in the vault during the event's first rotation. Madison Kocian, the team's uneven bars specialist, shone on the second rotation, getting a stellar 15.933 for her performance.
When it was time for the fourth and final rotation, Simone Biles, widely considered as one of, if not the best female gymnast of her generation, performed an intricate, high-flying routine that had the crowd cheering her on. By the end of her performance, which received an impressive 15.800 score, the audience was on its feet.
With her team completely crushing the competition, Karolyi, who is widely known to be a very stern coach, finally gave in to some good old figure of speech.
"I think her tumbling was sky high today. I think it was the best tumbling I ever saw in women's gymnastics," the veteran gymnastics coach said.
In a later interview, the legendary coach stated she had only cried twice during the Olympics. The first one was when Nadia Comaneci of Romania won her first gold medal back in 1976. The second time was when her team of young American gymnasts dedicated their performance to her.
"I'm known for being very tough. I felt like, 'Oh, what's happening to me? What is this?'," she said.
Considering the dominance that the U.S. female gymnastics team showed in the competition, the swan song of Karolyi's long and storied career could not have gone better.
