Following the exciting WAG AA competition, a press conference was held with bronze medalist Larisa Iordache, silver medalist Gabby Douglas and now three time World Champion Simone Biles.
Larisa Iordache
*Note Iordache made a great effort to speak in english, barely using the translator at all so answers are relatively short. She had great camaraderie with Douglas and Biles who were very inclusive of her, showing great sportsmanship between the three gymnasts.
“I feel much better now than Friday, but I want much more, all the time.” – on winning bronze (note she signaled towards Simones gold medal pretending to take it!)
“It was so hard for me. But I have my coach, my parents, my girls and my team with me. Today was good for me. Just enjoy it and just do it how you can. It was so good for me”. – on how she got picked up after Fridays qualification disaster
“Yes! Yes! I try revenge. I tried all the time thinking about my girls who support me. When I was up on Bars and Floor I think this is for me and my girls” – did she also feel that she was competing for her team mates following qualification
“I don’t know now because it was a hard day for me but it was a good one and I hope to win one or two medals consecutive at the next World Championships” – on being the second Romanian woman to win a consecutive AA medal and how she feels for a third one in 2017
“I don’t know yet! ” – on upgrades ahead of Rio (clearly living in the joy of the moment not thinking about it!)
Gabby Douglas
“It’s just so amazing and kind of unbelievable because it’s just insane that I’m here at the 2015 World Championships and I have a silver medal, and I never thought when I came back in the gym that I’d be in this place. It’s an amazing feeling” – on winning her first Individual Worlds medal
“We started off first by physically just trying to get prepared and then started putting routines together. The help of the national staff and the national training camps really pushed us in this direction. It’s her hard work and determination that got us here.” – Kittia Carpenter, on how Gabby made her comeback and how the medal placing affects the plan going forward to Rio
“It’s just mainly hard work and a lot of effort in the gym, being on the same page with Kittia and really just getting to know each other and bond and I’m really excited for the road ahead” – Gabby on how she made her comeback and how the medal placing affects the plan going forward to Rio
” I think we both tried to have a lot of fun and to go out there and compete to the best of our abilities, and you know really trust ourselves. I had a lot of fun out there on the floor. It was an amazing feeling”. – on what it was like standing on the podium, becoming the first reigning AA Olympic Champion to win an AA World medal
“I just focus on myself and focus on what I need to do and try not to put that pressure on myself, or else I’ll catch myself slipping up. So I just try to do what I’ve been doing in training and just believe in my abilities and just go out there and have fun.” – on the pressure of returning as the reigning AA Champion and how she deals it
“Right now I feel really good. I’m about 80% and definitely looking forward to the road ahead and putting in bigger skills in my routines and just cleaning up that execution area. Definitely going back in the gym and working really hard on those big upgrades” – how this moment compares to where she had hoped to be now and what possible upgrades she has in store
“I think for me, definitely Vault and Floor…..and a little bit of Beam and Bars, I guess all 4!” – on upgrades ahead of Rio
Simone Biles
“What keeps me going is the amazing team mates. We have Martha Karolyi she’s always pushing us in the gym. Then we have friends and family always scattered along the way, I just never get tired of it.” – on what keeps her going
“I’m pretty speechless and I guess I just keep blowing my own mind because yes there are goals that I have and then I dream of it and then I make it a reality. If I could crawl out of my skin and see it, it would be really amazing” – on summing up on how she feels following her third consecutive AA win.
“I didn’t even know that I could land on the red and when I landed on it, I was like,oh my gosh, I’m not supposed to be on this. It was a little different for me because usually I’m like so far away from the corner and when I went out I was like oh I gotta get back on the floor”. – on stepping out of bounds on floor.
“It was just a really amazing feeling, especially to have her [Gabby] by my side because usually it’s Kyla,so it’s a little bit different for me, I don’t know about her [Gabby]. It was still a lot of fun and we just tried to to what we do in practice and I think, for me, I kind of overthought it a lot tonight. Just because everyone was like three-peat but other than that I just tried to have fun with it and not think about it”. – on what was it like to stand up on the podium, making history becoming the first female gymnast to win the AA title 3 consecutive times.
“I was just one day I was doing full out on floor and I kind of landed short and I was like, oh my achilles area hurts. I partially tore something in my calf, I don’t really know. So my coach was like ‘well if you don’t want to land short just try a half out’. So I just went to the tumble track and tried half outs and it was like ok well you’re actually really good at that, lets try to put that in your routine and nobody’s done it, it could be named after you. So then we had to take it to camp and they had to look at it. They were like it’s very different but I managed to land it most of the time so that’s how it came about.” – on how the Biles came about and how does it feel to have something named after you in the Code of Points
“I think I said, oh that was the save of the century. And I thought that her execution overall in the routine was good so I was just trying to keep her mind in that area, not thinking about what the mistake was, let’s focus on what you did well because that should be reflected in the score, which it was because it was a major error but the rest of the routine was pretty solid. Then since she was first on beam and last on floor, we had a really long wait so it was kind of like ok relax now and then we didn’t even start talking about floor until we got over to floor” – Coach Aimee Boorman said to Biles following her mishap on beam landing a front somi.
“Oh I could upgrade my second vault. A one and a half, I’ve been working at that” – on upgrades ahead of Rio
