d streak of 243 attempts without one -- and was just 13 of 33 for 58

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Martha Karolyi, the U.S. womens gymnastics national team coordinator since 2000 and overseer of the American Olympic teams transformation into a world power, is an exacting taskmaster. She talks about perfection as if shes never heard the axiom about perfection being the enemy of good.But Tuesday, even Karolyi, a woman with 54 years in the sport, had to admit -- after the American team defended its 2012 team gold medal in a rout of Russia and third-place China on Tuesday at Rio Olympic Arena -- that she could find little fault with this squad.This five-woman group is the best womens gymnastics team that has ever been.I would have to say yes, Karolyi said, knowing that the Americans 8.209-point victory over second-place Russia was the largest in an Olympic womens team final since the Soviet Union defeated Czechoslovakia by 8.997 points at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. But the USSRs margin comes with an asterisk: Back then, six athletes scores were counted in each event, and the degree of difficulty cant compare to what female gymnasts do today.So when the American teams gold medal was finally won Tuesday, in the most impressive way possible, the 73-year-old Karolyi -- who has announced that she will retire after these Games -- burst into tears when the gymnasts told her they had adopted the nickname The Final Five, partly as a way of honoring her.Its hard to make Martha cry, said 22-year-old Aly Raisman, the captain of the team, who has said that she can feel Karolyis demanding presence in the gym before seeing her.Laurie Hernandez, the 16-year-old baby of the U.S. team, said the teams search for something to replace The Fierce Five nickname of the 2012 gold-medal squad started with a text chat among all five members of the U.S. team -- three-time world champion Simone Biles, Hernandez, Raisman, Gabby Douglas and Madison Kocian -- after they survived the U.S. Olympic Trials last month to earn their spots in Rio.I think [the final pick] was Simone Biles idea, Hernandez said.Karolyi said when the team sprang it on her after their final event Tuesday, it was only the second time in her gymnastics career that she cried. The first, she said, was when Nadia Comaneci and the Romanian team that she and her husband, Bela, coached dominated the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal. Five years later, Martha and Bela sought asylum in the U.S., and beginning with Mary Lou Retton, their first U.S. champion, the American program has never been the same.I am not a sentimental person. I am known as a very tough person, Martha told a crowd of reporters Tuesday, laughing along with everyone else at the enormous understatement. But once the tears started, Karolyi said, I was like, What is happening to me?Biles said, It was so cute. She told us, See? This is why I made you do all of those repetitions in the gym all these years.Numbers can sometimes seem like a dry way of making a case for best ever at anything in sports. When it comes to greatness, its often anecdotal evidence or images in the minds eye that we remember more.But by any measure --- the scores, the eyeball test, the consistently spectacular routines these five women threw out, the amplitude of the skills they perform, their imperviousness to pressure -- its easy to make the case that this team is the best womens team ever assembled. This was such a total domination that by the halfway point of the event, the U.S. was competing only against itself. It was Them vs. Whats Possible, Them vs. Perfection, just as Karolyi had always preached.This is how they responded: They went a perfect 12-for-12 on their routines, without a notable bobble.?They posted the winning team score on all four events.I heard we still wouldve won [the gold] if we had a couple falls, but its still better when you have that magical moment of hitting 12-for-12, Raisman said.But the 12-for-12 wasnt the most impressive thing about this romp. Someone calculated that if Biles four scores, which easily qualified her first for the individual all-around event on Thursday, were removed from the American teams total and replaced with the fourth-best American scores in Sundays qualifier, the U.S. still wouldve won the gold medal. The margin wouldve been just two points, instead of the mind-blowing 8.2. That is beyond remarkable.Also noteworthy is that Douglas and Raisman became the first American women to repeat as Olympic team champions. Biles and Raisman could now go 1-2 in the all-around competition, and Kocian, the reigning world co-champ on bars, is a favorite to win gold when the individual events are held.Biles, a powerful 19-year-old with an old soul and bone-dry sense of humor, finally has her first Olympic gold medal in her first try to add to her three world all-around titles and four U.S. national championships. Just as significantly, everything she did Tuesday augured well for the likelihood that shell win the individual all-around as expected. Her soaring performances on the floor exercise and vault in particular drew gasps from the crowd.Karolyi said one of Biles sky high tumbling passes on the floor was the best tumbling pass Ive ever seen in womens gymnastics.But Im pretty sure if she [Karolyi] sees anything start to crack on the team, shell be back out of retirement,?Biles said with a mischievous smile.Karolyi insisted not so. Then she allowed, I might take a peek in the gym now and then when the national team returns to the ranch just north of Houston that she and Bela own for the monthly training sessions that were also the Karolyis idea.In hindsight, the Karolyis ability to push through their idea of a semi-centralized U.S. system that has allowed the national team members to train at home most of the time but reconvene five or six days a month at the ranch, which is now an official national team training site, was the flash point that started this all.Once there, gymnasts are required to perform pressure sets with Karolyi and a team of evaluators watching them. Their personal coaches come along to the camp, which sparked an unprecedented level of cooperation and an exchange of ideas, rather than the club vs. club mentality that used to prevail. As Karolyi has often said, it doesnt hurt that the gymnasts get to look at what their competition is up to and then say to themselves, Uh-oh, this one over there is gaining on me. Or I better get stronger at this.In the end, perhaps the most remarkable achievement is how everyone -- the gymnasts, their coaches, Karolyi herself -- bought into the idea of subjugating individual ambitions for the good of the group.Bela Karolyi has said that under the old U.S. system, the clubs created only queens of their own little gyms who collapsed when they faced the rest of the world. Those days are gone.We believe success comes from not only doing well for yourself but for your team and then putting a lot of hard work behind that, Biles said Tuesday. We all support each other. We all get ready together. Were like sisters. ... And I think well share a bond forever.Why not? For now and until further notice, theyre the best there has ever been.China Jerseys .ca look back at each of the Top 10 stories of 2013. Today, we look back at Boston Strong - a citys recovery from tragedy. Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping . Halladay signed a one-day contract with the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday that allowed the veteran right-hander to retire as a member of team with which he broke into the majors and spent the bulk of his distinguished 16-year career. http://www.cheapjerseysdiscount.com/ . Philadelphia is 2-0 against the Senators this season and scored five goals in each victory. The Flyers recorded a 5-0 win in Ottawa on Nov. 12 and then earned a 5-2 home decision on Nov. 19. The Flyers have claimed three straight and four of the last five encounters with the Sens overall and Philly has won two in a row and three of its past four tests in Canadas capital city. Jerseys Outlet .B. - Sebastien Auger made 44 saves as the Saint John Sea Dogs edged the visiting Acadie-Bathurst Titan 2-1 on Saturday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Stitched NFL Jerseys . Terms of the deal were not immediately available. The 26-year-old finished last season with Clevelands Triple-A affiliate in Columbus after signing with the Indians in August.CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- North Carolina struggled during a hurricane. Now the Tar Heels have to deal with the Miami Hurricanes.A debacle in a downpour led to an ugly first Atlantic Coast Conference loss of the year for UNC (4-2, 2-1), and now the Tar Heels know they have to be much better this week when they visit Miami (4-1, 1-1) -- which itself is stinging from a one-point loss to its most bitter rival.After looking at the film, North Carolina coach Larry Fedora said Monday, it wasnt any better.At least the Hurricanes could take some small consolation in that their loss to Florida State was competitive. The Seminoles blocked what would have been the game-tying extra point with 1:38 remaining in a 20-19 victory over Miami.You saw how we lost. You saw how they lost, quarterback Mitch Trubisky said. Were both going to come in hungry for a win.Nothing went right for the Tar Heels in a 34-3 loss to the Hokies , who proved much tougher than both UNC and the elements. Playing in a driving rain and amid gusting winds from Hurricane Matthew, the Tar Heels failed to score a touchdown for the first time under Fedora and were outgained by a more than 2-to-1 margin.And while some of those stats can rightfully be blamed on the weather -- UNCs 131 total yards, its fewest in a game since 1999, were in line with what some of their ACC neighbors gained in similar conditions -- they dont begin to explain how they were completely dominated by the Hokies.We were so inconsistent in everything we did, Fedora said. You could just pick and choose anything and something was going wrong. We just never did get going.Indeed, the Tar Heels just never looked anything like the team that rallied from 13 down in the final 6 minutes to beat Pittsburgh on a TD pass with 2 seconds left, nor the team that won at Florida State on a final-play 54-yard field goal to climb back into the national rankings.ddddddddddddTrubisky threw his first interceptions of the year -- with the first ending a program-record streak of 243 attempts without one -- and was just 13 of 33 for 58 yards after hitting the 400-yard mark in his previous three games. Some of those struggles, of course, can be blamed on the heavy, waterlogged balls themselves.I just couldnt put what I want on it, he said.It didnt help that Elijah Hood was ruled out before the game because of an undisclosed injury from the previous week at Florida State, robbing the Tar Heels of their top tailback whose physical running style would have been helpful in the conditions. Fedora said he expects Hood to play this week against Miami, but added that he wont know anything until the team returns to practice Tuesday.You hope (having Hood) would help in the slop against the Hokies, Fedora said. But if he was playing like everybody else, it wouldnt have mattered, because it wasnt just one guy. It was multiple guys.---AP Sports Writer Aaron Beard in Chapel Hill contributed to this report.---Follow Joedy McCreary at http://twitter.com/joedyap His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/joedy-mccreary---AP college football site: http://collegefootball.ap.org ' ' '