Jackson Free Press

Breaking: Simone Biles wins the gold medal in the women’s all-around final and teammate Aly Raisman wins the silver medal. The event was held today and will be seen in primetime on NBC as coverage starts at 7 p.m.

The members of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team call themselves “The Final Five,” and now, they can call themselves “The Golden Girls” after their gold medal in the team final. They crushed their opponents in a sport where the winners are normally separated by 10ths of points.

Instead, the U.S. women had a score of 184.897 points, winning by 8.209 points over second-place Russia, which had a score of 176.688. China took the bronze with 176.003 points, Japan finished fourth with 174.371, and Great Britain finished fifth with 174.362.

The scores above show just how dominant the U.S. women’s gymnastics team has been in Rio. Just .685 points separated second place and third places, and fourth and fifth place were separated by .009 points.

This is the largest margin of victory in the gymnastics team final since the current points system was put in place in 2006 and replaced the “Perfect 10” scoring system. The U.S. women also broke their own record when the “Fierce Five” won by 5.066 points in the London games four years ago.

By winning in Rio, this is the first time the U.S. women have won back-to-back gold medals in the team finals and the third Olympic gold medal in the event overall. The U.S. has medaled in this event from every Olympics since the 1992 games. Over that period of time, the U.S. has three gold medals (1996, 2012, 2016), two silver medals (2004, 2008) and two bronze medals (1992, 2000).

U.S. women’s gymnastics is working on taking over the sport with back-to-back Olympic gold medals and world championships in 2011, 2014 and 2015. This current team might be the best the U.S. has ever sent to the Olympics.

London holdovers Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman and perhaps the best gymnast in the world, Simone Biles, lead the team. First-time Olympians Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian might not get the headlines of the top-three U.S. gymnasts but are great in their events.

In Rio, the Americans had the highest team score in each event.

On the uneven bars, the U.S. women only held a .333 advantage over the second-best team, but Kocian has the best score of her career, and Douglas matched her best score of the year. Biles finished with the highest score on the balance beam, Hernandez finished third, and the U.S. finished .935 points over the second-place team.

Biles and Raisman both executed an Amanar, which is one of the most difficult vaults, as Biles finished with the top score. The U.S. women were able to start with a lead of 1.133 over the second-best team. The vault was the first event for the U.S. women in the team …