Breaking News: Simone Biles Has Just One Peer in Rio, but Rejects the Comparison

Simone Biles, who has won the last three world championships in the all-around, finished first in Sunday’s Olympic preliminary round and helped the United States beat China by nearly 10 points.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

RIO DE JANEIRO — In the hours before the preliminary round of Olympic gymnastics, members of the United States women’s team were at the cafeteria in the athletes’ village, goofing around. Telling jokes. Making funny faces. Laughing so hard that Martha Karolyi, the women’s national team coordinator, approached Aly Raisman, the team captain, to tell them to quiet down.

“Today is the Olympics,” Karolyi said. “You have to be more serious.”

Karolyi, of course, was right. The team should have been more focused. But when a squad’s star is Simone Biles — the best gymnast in the world and the best in history, for that matter — that team can afford to relax. Biles has set the tone for that.

She is good at what she does, so good that she won the last three world championships in the all-around, collecting 10 gold medals at the worlds along the way. That’s the most ever won by a female gymnast.