The Russian gymnasts - competing under the banner of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) – seized the gold ahead of the United States and Great Britain, which won silver and bronze respectively, bringing an end to U.S. dominance in the event.
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The Russian women’s gymnastics team add their gold medals to those won by the men’s outfit on Monday, with the country currently fourth in the Olympic medal leaderboards at Tokyo 2020.
The US’ Simone Biles chose to drop out after the opening vault, indicating that concern over her mental wellbeing influenced the decision. Biles – who won four gold medals at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro – was sorely missed by her teammates, who sought to catch up to the Russians throughout.
Russia’s victory was confirmed with a final score of 169.528, ahead of both the US on 166.096 and Great Britain on 164.096.
Russian athletes are competing under the banner of the ROC following a ruling on alleged doping issued the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) obliging them to compete under a neutral flag.
CAS reduced the initial four year ban imposed by the World Anti-Doping Agency to two years, meaning Russian participants will still be competing under the ROC name at the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.