Gymnasts Simone Biles, 19, and Gabby Douglas, 20, are racing the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Biles is the reigning world champion and Douglas holds the Olympic all-around title. Though it would seem like the two would have a friendly rivalry the girls shut that down when talking to Natalie Morales on The Today Show. Though the final U.S. gymnastics team isn't set, these girls are almost certainly shoe-ins. Simone just won her first competition of the season by an impressive margin.
Douglas won two in a row at the start of the season, but they have yet to compete against each other.
When asked if the girls are rivals as well as teammates, Biles quickly shut the talk down with, "Not really."
Douglas chimed in, "We're not catty like that."
Their answers are refreshing. It's still a rarity to see two Black women athletes dominate sports like gymnastics, so seeing them both thrive is a treat.
Simone Biles took five months off to rest her body and perfect new elements of her routines for the 2016 competition season which include the Rio Olympics. That time away from competing paid off spectacularly at the Pacific Rim Championships in Everett, Washington this weekend.
She debuted a new floor routine and a new second vault.
Biles won the all-around competition, posting the highest scores on floor exercise, balance beam, and vault. She placed third in her least favorite apparatus, balance beam.
Biles has been called the most dominant athlete of any gender in any sport. She hasn't lost a competition she's entered since August 2013, and she's a three-time defending world champion. She is in a fantastic place as we near the 2016 Rio Olympics. All she has to do is maintain this momentum.
Simone Biles, 18, made gymnastics history today as she became the first woman to win three world all-around titles in a row.
NBC Sports reports Biles championed over Gabby Douglas in Glasgow, Scotland at the world championship competition. She had a rocky finish, with mistakes on balance beam and during her floor routine. Still, she prevailed.
Douglas cemented her comeback and placed 2nd, 1.083 points behind Biles. Coming off of a two-year break, she's the first Olympic women's all-around champion to medal at the World all-around competition since 1981.
“I really wanted to prove everyone that my comeback was real," she said. "It wasn’t fake. It wasn’t for the fame.”
On Thursday, Biles broke U.S. records for World all-around titles and World Championships medals with her 11th.
18-Year-Old gymnast Simone Biles won the U.S. women’s gymnastics championship for the third time in a row at the 2015 P&G Gymnastics Championships at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
