Final Five (gymnastics)

The Final Five celebrating after winning the Women's Team All-Around at the 2016 Summer Olympics

The Final Five was the artistic gymnastics team that won the third team gold medal for the United States, and the second gold medal on international soil, in the women's team competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The five members of the team were Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian, and Aly Raisman. Later in the Olympic Games, Biles won a gold medal in the individual all-around event, the vault, and on floor exercise and won a bronze on the balance beam; Raisman, the team captain, won silver in the individual all around and on floor exercise; Kocian won silver on the uneven bars; Hernandez won silver on the balance beam. They are the first team since the Unified Team at the 1992 Summer Olympics to medal on every event, including the team and individual all-around. They are the second U.S. team to do so after the U.S. 1984 Summer Olympics team.

Team background

Raisman and Douglas were both part of the gold medal winning team, dubbed the Fierce Five, at the 2012 London Olympics where Douglas won gold in the all-around and Raisman won gold on the floor event and bronze on the balance beam.

Biles won gold at the 2013 World Championships in the all-around and on floor exercise. She also won silver on vault and bronze on balance beam.^[1]

Biles and Kocian were part of the 2014 World Championship gold medal winning team. Biles additionally won gold in the all-around, on floor exercise, and on balance beam. She also won silver on vault.^[2]

Biles, Raisman, Douglas, and Kocian were all part of the 2015 World Championship gold medal winning team. Biles won gold in the all-around and Douglas won the silver. Biles also won gold on floor exercise and balance beam and won bronze on the vault. Kocian won gold on the uneven bars in a four way tie.^[3] Thus making Biles the reigning world champion in all-around, floor, and balance beam and Kocian the reigning world co-champion on the uneven bars going into the Olympics. Additionally Biles was the reigning national champion as well.

Aly Raisman, the captain of the Fierce Five, was once again selected as team captain.^[4]

Biles was chosen by Team USA to be the flag bearer for the closing ceremonies. She was the first American female gymnast to be given the honor.^[5]

Olympic Trials

The Women's Gymnastics Olympic Trials took place on Friday, July 8 and Sunday, July 10, 2016 at the SAP Center in San Jose, California.^[6]

At the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, Biles, Hernandez, and Raisman finished first, second, and third respectively in the all-around competition. Biles finished first on vault and floor exercise, Kocian finished first on the uneven bars, Hernandez finished first on the balance beam. ^[7] MyKayla Skinner, Ragan Smith, and Ashton Locklear were selected as the three alternates.^[8] Full Olympic Trial scores are as follows:^[9]

Nickname

The name Final Five was not announced until the team received their final scores and were announced the winners of the Women's team all-around. The name has two meanings -- one being that this is the last olympics where gymnastics teams will be made up of five members (starting in the 2020 Summer Olympics the teams will only consist of four) and the other being that this is the final gymnastics team to be formed under national team coordinator of USA Gymnastics Marta Karolyi.^[10]

2016 Summer Olympics

Qualifications

The United States qualified in first place with an overall score of 185.238, nearly 10 points ahead of second place China who received a score of 175.279. Biles, Douglas, and Raisman competed on all four events. Hernandez competed on vault, balance beam, and floor exercise. Kocian competed only on uneven bars. For the individual all-around competition, Biles, Raisman, and Douglas qualified in first, second, and third place, respectively.^[11] Due to the rule allowing only the top two from each country to compete in a World or Olympic individual final, only Biles and Raisman advanced. Douglas had won the all-around at the 2012 Olympics.

Biles qualified first on the vault, balance beam, and floor exercise; Kocian qualified first on the uneven bars; Raisman qualified second on the floor exercise; Hernandez qualified second on the balance beam; and Douglas qualified third on the uneven bars. Additionally Douglas and Raisman both finished seventh on the balance beam; Hernandez finished fourth and Douglas finished ninth on floor exercise but failed to qualify to the finals due to the two per country rule.^[12]

Qualifications
Gymnast	Vault	Bars	Beam	Floor	All-Around
Simone Biles	16.050(1)	15.000(14)	15.633(1)	15.733(1)	62.366(1)
Gabby Douglas	15.166	15.766(3)	14.833 (=7)	14.366(9)	60.131(3)
Laurie Hernandez	15.200		15.366(2)	14.800(4)
Madison Kocian		15.866(1)
Aly Raisman	15.766	14.733(22)	14.833(=7)	15.275(2)	60.607(2)
United States	46.966(1)	46.632(2)	45.832(1)	45.808(1)	185.238(1)

Team Final

Final Five winning their gold medal

Biles, Raisman, and Hernandez each competed on vault, balance beam, and floor exercise. Kocian, Douglas, and Biles competed on uneven bars. The team scored 184.897, over eight points ahead of second place Russia. For each individual apparatus the Final Five's combined scores were the highest.

Team Finals
Gymnast	Vault	Bars	Beam	Floor	Total
Simone Biles	15.933	14.800	15.300	15.800	61.833
Gabby Douglas		15.766			15.766
Laurie Hernandez	15.100		15.233	14.833	45.166
Madison Kocian		15.933			15.933
Aly Raisman	15.833		15.000	15.366	46.199
United States	46.866 (1)	46.499 (1)	45.533 (1)	45.999 (1)	184.897 (1)

Individual Events

In the individual all-around, Biles and Raisman each performed four clean routines, with Biles scoring the highest score on all but the uneven bars, as well as being the only gymnast that day to score above 15 on the balance beam. Biles took the gold medal, 2.1 points ahead of Raisman, who took the silver medal. With this, Biles and Raisman became the second pair of American gymnasts to go 1-2 in the all-around, after Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson took gold and silver respectively in 2008.

In the vault final, Biles, who was favored to win despite never winning a world title on the apparatus, won the gold medal, becoming the first American gymnast to win the vault title at an Olympic Games.

Kocian and Douglas qualified for the uneven bars final. Kocian performed cleanly and won the silver medal. Douglas, who made a mistake on one of her pirouettes, placed seventh.

In the balance beam final, Hernandez won the silver medal, while Biles suffered a shocking mishap when she put her hands on the beam after a balance check on her front tuck. Despite the mistake, her score was high enough to win her the bronze medal.

Copying the results of the all-around, Biles and Raisman won gold and silver respectively in the floor exercise final, competing the two highest difficulty routines in the competition.

Post-Olympics

Laurie Hernandez competed on and won season 23 of Dancing with the Stars. She was partnered with Valentin Chmerkovskiy.^[13]

Simone Biles competed on season 24 of Dancing with the Stars. She was partnered with Sasha Farber. They finished fourth.^[14]

Madison Kocian went on to compete at the collegiate level for the UCLA Bruins.^[15] She, along with Fierce Five member Kyla Ross, made history by becoming the first Olympic gold medalists to compete in NCAA gymnastics.^[16]

Gallery

The Final Five
Simone Biles  Gabby Douglas  Laurie Hernandez  Madison Kocian  Aly Raisman

See also

• Magnificent Seven, the U.S. 1996 Summer Olympics women's artistic gymnastics team
• Fierce Five, the U.S. 2012 Summer Olympics women's artistic gymnastics team

References

2016 USA Olympic Gymnastics Team (Gold medal – Women's Team)
Men's artistic gymnastics athletes	Chris Brooks Jacob Dalton Danell Leyva Sam Mikulak Alex Naddour
Women's artistic gymnastics athletes (Final Five)	Simone Biles Gabby Douglas Laurie Hernandez Madison Kocian Aly Raisman
Rhythmic gymnastics individual athletes	Laura Zeng Kiana Eide Alisa Kano Natalie McGiffert Monica Rokhman Kristen Shaldybin
Trampoline athletes	Nicole Ahsinger Logan Dooley
Coaches	Márta Károlyi (National Team Coordinator) Aimee Boorman (Head Women's Artistic Coach) Mihai Brestyan (Assistant Head Women's Artistic Coach) Christian Gallardo (Women's Artistic Coach) Maggie Haney (Women's Artistic Coach) Laurent Landi (Women's Artistic Coach)