U.S. Olympians show grace in defeat

Simone Biles won gold this afternoon, blowing away her competition with a flawless floor routine in her last individual event in Rio. The medal made her one of only four women gymnasts who have won four golds in a single Olympics. She performed difficult routines easily—after slipping yesterday on her balance beam event and taking only bronze.

And Biles was not alone in coming just short of the top mark. The United States failed yesterday to win a gold medal—a first since the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Disappointments included elimination from the women’s field hockey tournament and fifth place in both marathon swims. But Biles, 19, was among the U.S. athletes who responded with grace: “I’m not disappointed in the medal that I received because anyone would love to have a bronze at an Olympic Games.”

Journalists had been calling for the young gymnast to win an unprecedented five gold medals in her five events. They called her a robot because she managed to make the most difficult routines look perfect. But yesterday her feet slipped—and she didn’t pout afterwards.

“I think you guys want it more than I do,” she told reporters. “I just want to perform the routines that I practice.”

Another favorite, U.S. runner Allyson Felix, 30, will have a harder time forgetting her disappointment in last night’s 400-meter race. She flew into the last round, long legs churning, but two lanes away, Bahamian Shaunae Miller, who led for most of the race, dove for the finish line, grinding to a halt with her fingers in the ground. Miller’s shoulder crossed the line 0.07 seconds before Felix.

Miller took gold and Felix accepted the silver, her dream over. But she didn’t complain.

“God has been so good to get me this far. … It will be tough, you know,” she told a reporter after the race. “I’m just going to try to pick myself up.”

Some of Felix’s fans were not as gracious about Miller’s win. They took to Twitter to call Miller a cheater and weird, claim her tactics ruined the sport, and beg for her disqualification.

An ankle injury kept Felix from competing in the 200-meter this year, the race she calls her “baby,” so all her hopes were on the 400. But Felix put the blame on herself, saying she might have tried harder in the first half of the race: “I wanted to win. It’s been a tough year. I didn’t quite do enough.”

Still, when Felix claimed her seventh Olympic medal, she became the most decorated women’s track and field athlete in American history.