Simone Biles Is Incredible

Yesterday was not great. I spent the afternoon thinking we nailed our Simone Biles +626 parlay, only to find out that they do a separate contest for each individual activity and she's only a quarter of the way through that parlay.

Then, we bet on three swimmers that finished fifth, second, and fifth.

Not ideal.

So I'm going to try to inject some positive energy into this morning. Simone has DOMINATED the individual all-around file twice now, and she should continue dominating as the competition progresses. What's left of our parlay is three legs: beam, vault, and floor.

Vault

Simone in the Team event: 15.933 (1st)
Simone in the Individual event: 16.000 (1st)
Girls to watch out for:

• Aly Raisman (USA) finished second in both Team and Individual with a 15.833 and a 15.766
• Maria Paseka (RUS) finished third in Team with 15.700 but didn't compete in Individual
• Giulia Steingruber (SUI) didn't compete in Team but finished third in Individual with 15.600
• Rebecca Andrade (BRA) finished fourth in Team and Individual with a 15.400 and a 15.566
• Aliya Mustafinia (RUS) tied for fifth in Team with 15.133 and finished fifth in Individual with 15.166
• Ellie Downie (GBR) tied for fifth in Team with 15.133 and finished ninth in Individual with 14.833

Confidence level: Very high. Simone could screw up and drop down to the mid-15's, and someone like Raisman or Paseka or Steingruber could overtake her, but that's not happening. This is Simone's strongest event. As the gay NBC announcer always says, she runs higher and jumps faster than any gymnast in history.

Beam

Simone in the Team event: 15.300 (1st)
Simone in the Individual event: 15.633 (1st)
Girls to watch out for:

• Sanne Wevers (NED) finished second in Team with 15.250 but didn't compete in Individual
• Laurie Hernandez (USA) finished third in Team with 15.233 but didn't compete in Individual
• Two Chinese Girls (CHN) finished fourth in Team with 15.066 but only one competed in Individual and she finished eighth with 14.366
• Aly Raisman (USA) finished fifth in Team with 15.000 and third in Individual with 14.833
• Aliya Mustafina (RUS) finished sixth in Team with 14.958 but tanked in Individual and scored just 13.033, placing her 21st out of 24
• Flavor Flavia Saraiva (BRA) finished seventh in Team with 14.833 and second in Individual with 15.133

Confidence level: High. Simone and Flavia were the only two competitors with a chance to win who improved from the Team event to the Individual event. Everyone else either was hungover or cracked under the pressure. And Simone, as is the case in every event except the uneven bars, is just better than everyone else. She doesn't have quite as big a cushion on the beam as she does on the vault, but there's still a sizable cushion there by gymnastics standards. 

Floor

Simone in the Team event: 15.800 (1st)

Simone in the Individual event: 15.733 (1st)
Girls to watch out for:

• Aly Raisman (USA) finished second in Team and Individual with a 15.366 and a 15.275
• Vanessa Ferrari (ITA) didn't compete in Team but finished third in Individual with 14.866
• Laurie Hernandez (USA) finished third in Team with 14.833 but didn't compete in Individual
• Wang Yan (CHN) finished fourth in Team and Individual with a 14.733 and a 14.666  
• Everyone else's best score was at least a full point behind Simone's worst score

Confidence level: I mean, come on. No worries on the floor at all. I was mad when I realized we didn't win the money yesterday, but she's dominated every event twice now. There's no reason to start doubting her at this stage.