RIO DE JANEIRO — The celebration, as expected, started even before the Olympic gymnastics team final was over, even before the final beat of music accompanying the United States’ final event, the floor exercise, blasted through the loudspeakers.
The American women began to clap and hug and gathered together to stand, shoulder-to-shoulder, as Simone Biles, their star, finished her floor routine.
Why not celebrate early? The Americans were expected to win by a landslide on Tuesday, and then did. It wasn’t even close.
Once Biles finished her routine — sealing an 8-point victory, a grand canyon of a gap in a sport that calculates margins by thousandths of a point — her teammates ran to her and joined each other in a sparkly group hug.