RIO DE JANEIRO—The nerves were there. Unmistakable. Unavoidable. Standing in the darkened tunnel before entering Rio Olympic Arena on Sunday night, the U.S. women’s gymnastics team felt the pressure that comes not from outside expectations but those held within.
Then the lights came on.
And just like that, the young women in the glittery red-and-blue leotards national team coordinator Martha Karolyi has molded into a global force relaxed.
And dominated.
On bars. On beam. On vault and floor too. Their not-a-typo score of 185.238 was nearly 10 points better than second-place China through four of the five subdivisions, a preposterous gap in a sport where the difference between first and second is measured in fractions.
“It’s never 100 percent perfect but I think we showed that our gymnastics is of the highest level,” Karolyi said.
