World champ flashes Olympic form

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS

Simone Biles can start packing for Rio de Janeiro whenever she likes.

The reigning world champion looked in Olympic form during the first night of the U.S. women’s gymnastics championships Friday. Biles scored 62.900 points to top the field by a wide margin and left little doubt she’s ready to head to Brazil in August as the heavy favorite to become the fourth straight American all-around winner.

Three-time Olympic medalist Aly Raisman and Laurie Hernandez were tied for second at 60.450. Defending Olympic champion Gabby Douglas was fourth at 58.9, and Madison Kocian fifth at 58.150.

The official five-woman team won’t be unveiled until after Olympic Trials in San Jose, California, in two weeks. Biles, however, can get her passport ready and pack an extra suitcase to make sure she’s got room for all the medals she’s going to bring home with her.

Biles has been easing into the year, working a slightly watered down schedule geared toward having her peak by mid-summer. She’s well ahead of schedule. The gap she’s created between herself and the rest of the planet during a winning streak that’s nearly three years and counting shows no signs of closing. If anything, it’s widening considering her closest competitors are the four women who will join her on the plane to Brazil in August.

Biles was flawless from the start, her beam routine a 45-second showcase of precision with nary a wobble or even a peak at the floor 4-feet below. Her score of 15.7 is a significant step up from the 15.388 she posted at world championships last fall, an event she won easily. Her floor routine includes a series of hand flourishes that seems as if she’s saying “follow me” and a series of tumbling passes that are the gymnastics version of Michael Jordan at the height of his “airness” prime.

The drama over the next two weeks will center on who will emerge from a crowded group national team coordinator Martha Karolyi feels is as deep as any she’s had in her 15 years turning the program into a dynasty that shows no signs of slowing down even as Karolyi prepares for her final Olympics.

Yet available spots may be dwindling. Douglas and Raisman, part of the “Fierce Five” that overwhelmed the rest of the field in London four years ago, seem poised for a return to the Games. Raisman continued her recent return to form by putting together her best all-around performance since her return to competition in March of last year.

Douglas, who won the American Cup and in Italy earlier this spring, wasn’t quite as sharp. She wobbled twice on beam and needed a world-class save to stay on at one point. Yet she did to avoid a major deduction, a trait Karolyi welcomes nearly as much as a flawlessly executed routine.

Kocian, a world champion on uneven bars, put up the second-best score on uneven bars and appears to be fully healed from a leg injury that slowed her training during the spring.

Maggie Nichols, a member of last fall’s gold-medal winning world championship team, finished outside the top five in both of her events — uneven bars and balance beam — in her first competition since tearing the meniscus in her knee in April.

Nichols’ injury coincided with the rise of Hernandez, who turned 16 earlier this month and seems at ease on the big stage. She put up scores that ranked in the top three in all four events, giving Karolyi yet another option as she puts together what will be the gymnastics equivalent of a “Dream Team” for Rio.