Aimee Boorman, the United States women’s gymnastics coach, couldn’t remember the specific jokes she was telling her prized protege, Simone Biles, to keep her loose during the long interval before the balance beam.

“I’m sure she thinks they’re really stupid,” Boorman said.

But they were good enough to help Biles conquer an often formidable apparatus, the beam. She let out a cry of delight when she finished her routine, getting a score of 15.633.

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It was an emotional soundtrack for a stirring and successful night for the U.S. in its qualification round Sunday at Rio Olympic Arena. Not only did the U.S. qualify for Tuesday’s team finals with the top score, it was nearly 10 points ahead of No. 2 China.

It also recorded the best scores on the floor exercise (Biles), vault (Biles) and uneven bars (Madison Kocian).

Biles and teammate Aly Raisman, a 2012 returnee from the gold-medal-winning team, qualified in the all-around final. Biles, 19, an Olympics newcomer, handled the spotlight with ease as if it was one of her three all-around world championship titles already.


What helped Biles before the balance beam routine were encouraging words from national team coordinator Martha Karolyi, who was in the stands. Boorman has been her coach for more than a decade but words of encouragement from Karolyi are especially meaningful.

“Right before I went up for my routine, I looked straight at her, she just said, ‘You’ve got it Simone,’ ” Biles said. “That calmed me a lot.”

As one Olympic era opened, another closed. Gabby Douglas was the star of the 2012 London Olympics, a member of the winning team and winner of the all-around gold medal. Because each country can have only two gymnasts in the all-around final, Raisman or Douglas would have been the odd-one out.

Douglas, who struggled at the Olympic trials in July, improved greatly since then and performed admirably Sunday. She said she had “no regrets for the most part.”


The mini-drama during the qualifications was the battle between Douglas and Raisman for the second spot. Raisman was ahead of Douglas after the floor exercise and held it through the vault and uneven bars.

Douglas got closer heading into the beam with a big score on the uneven bars. She went first on the beam and put up a 14.833 and the pressure shifted to Raisman.

Raisman came close to losing her edge when she nearly fell off the beam at the end of her routine, but she saved it.

“She kind of went sideways and I jumped out of my chair like I was going to will her to stay on the beam,” Boorman said. “It works.”


Said Raisman, who earned 14.833 on the beam: “I wasn’t sure what kind of score they were going to give me, but I knew other than that mistake, the rest of the routine was solid.”

The Americans are so deep they could have had four legitimate all-around contenders in Biles, Raisman, Douglas and 16-year-old Laurie Hernandez.

Hernandez was not in contention for an all-around spot despite having finished second to Biles at trials. Karolyi had been criticized for leaving her out of the mix but her logic proved right. Hernandez did make the event final on the balance beam and Douglas made the uneven bars final.

“Definitely, it came down between Aly and Laurie,” Karolyi said. “Aly showed more difficulty in her gymnastics and she was in her very best shape. Unfortunately, Laurie had a little bit of a pulled abdominal muscle and so that prevented her to do extremely consistent training on bars and it came down to that event.”


Hernandez she had been dealing with a “small stomach problem,” adding, “It’s not an injury at all. It’s very minor.”

Raisman, the team captain, decried the two-per-country rule in the all-around. In 2012, Raisman made the all-around final and won gold in the floor exercise and bronze on the balance beam.

“I feel sad for Laurie and Gabby because they’re also the best all-arounders in the world,” Raisman said. “That’s the thing about gymnastics. On one day, someone is the best, not counting Simone, the next day someone else is. Simone is always the best.”


lisa.dillman@latimes.com