At the Rio Olympic Games, Laurie Hernandez secured a silver medal in the balance beam while her teammate Simone Biles narrowly won the bronze after wobbling in the middle of her routine.
The 16-year-old Hernandez performed a poised routine, getting a score of 15.333, which was not enough to dislodge Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands from the top spot on the podium.
Biles, who was attempting to become the first female gymnast to win five gold medals at a single Olympics, landed awkwardly while performing a front somersault and grabbed the beam with both hands to avoid falling. Rules say that touching the beam while trying to balance is considered a fall.
Her score of 14.733 was eclipsed by Wevers and then Hernandez, but it was good enough to earn Biles' first bronze medal after winning three golds.
Wevers is the first Dutch woman to win an Olympic gymnastics medal.
Ahead of the beam finals on Monday, Biles, 19, shared on Instagram two sweet throwback photos with Hernandez.
"Funny thing is, back then we never thought we would be competing at the Olympics. Crazy how things happen. So excited to be competing in Beam finals today with this girl," she wrote in the caption.
Hernandez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, is the youngest of Team USA's “Final Five” squad and the first Latina to represent the U.S. in gymnastics since Cuban-American and two-time Olympic medalist Annia Hatch in 2004. Before that it was Tracee Talavera, who won silver in the team competition at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“I am so proud of my heritage,” Hernandez told reporters ahead of the games. “I think it’s amazing that I can just go out there and be myself, and the fact that I’m carrying Puerto Rico on my back a little bit, I think that’s an honor.”
The beam final marks the end of Rio competition for Hernandez. Biles will be in the mix for another gold on Tuesday in the floor exercise alongside their U.S. teammate Aly Raisman, who has won a gold and a silver in Rio.
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