Sunisa Lee stepped up to claim the coveted all-around gold medal many had expected to go to her United States teammate Simone Biles as the Tokyo Olympics gymnastics competition moved on without its biggest star on Thursday.
With Biles watching from the front row at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre, Lee clinched gold in the all-around to secure the title for the US for a fifth straight Games on the final rotation — the floor exercise — for a 57.433 total.
“Coming into this competition I didn’t even think that I could be competing for a gold medal,” said Lee. “I was coming to compete for a silver medal.
“I knew that I just had to stay focused. I wasn’t trying to worry about the scores at all. It’s crazy. It doesn’t feel like real life at all.”
Surprise package, 22-year-old Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, grabbed the silver for her country’s first medal in women gymnastics. Russian Angelina Melnikova took completed the podium by taking the bronze for the ROC.
Heir apparent
Considered heir apparent to Biles, 18-year-old Lee’s moment arrived sooner than expected. Biles, winner of every all-around competition she entered since 2013, threw the fight for the Olympic gold wide open when she decided not to defend her Rio all-around title.
She had already dropped out of the team event on Tuesday after one poor vault, citing the need to focus on her mental health.
“Going into this meet I feel like there was a lot of pressure on me because I have been second to her (Biles) the whole season basically,” said Lee.
In the end the stage was set for another thriller at the Ariake arena that has seen almost every medal decided by the final athlete in the final rotation.
As the gymnasts marched over to the floor, only 0.201 separated the top three of Lee, Andrade and 16-year-old Russian Vladislava Urazova, leaving everything to play for.
Lee, the youngest member of the US team, put down a marker first with a score of 13.700 but she left the door open a crack for Andrade, the second-last to compete, to snatch the gold.
But the Brazilian finally cracked by stepping out on her first tumbling run and then did so a second time, scoring 13.666, with the mistakes likely costing her the gold. As the marks flashed on the scoreboard and Lee’s victory was confirmed, her teammates in the stands leapt and cheered.
China women rule
Caeleb Dressel won the blue riband men’s 100m freestyle as the United States celebrated two gold medals in the pool on Thursday while China’s women responded with two gold medals and a world record of their own in another thrilling day of swimming.
Alongside Dressel’s triumph in the marquee event, fellow-American Bobby Finke clinched the 800m freestyle with an impressive late surge.
China gained their first gold in the Tokyo pool with Zhang Yufei winning the women’s 200m butterfly and then she returned to the pool to help her team upset the favoured Australians to win the 4x200m freestyle relay, setting a world record along the way.
Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook took gold in the men’s 200m breaststroke, also thanks to an incredible late surge to the finish.
World champion Dressel powered to victory in an Olympic record 47.02, finishing six hundredths of a second ahead of Rio winner Kyle Chalmers of Australia, with Russian Kliment Kolesnikov taking bronze.
China’s biggest gold medal hope Zhang delivered in style — taking control from the outset as she set an Olympic record of 2:03.86 to improve on her silver from the 100m butterfly.
Zhang was soon back in the water as part of the 4x200m team, which left the Americans and highly-rated Australians trailing in their wake in a race which saw all three medal winners swim under the world record time.
