Wieber was the odd girl out for Thursday's individual all-around final after teammates Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman scored above her during Olympic team qualifiers. Raisman, Wieber's best friend, earned the highest score of 60.391, slipping past Douglas for the top performance by an American.
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The result sent shockwaves through the O2 Arena and the U.S. team, and left Raisman and Wieber in tears, for entirely different reasons.
The rules allow only two gymnasts per country to make the all-around finals, and for months it seemed Douglas and Wieber were on course to repeat the duel Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin staged in Beijing four years ago.
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Raisman has been largely in the shadows of her teammates - Wieber is a champion, and Douglas is a natural who is perhaps the most talented gymnast of her generation.
At the beginning of the qualifiers, Raisman started off low-key - her vault was the lowest of the four Americans and same with her bars score. But she eventually found footing on the beam with a 15.1. Then, she upped her game on the floor, with 75 nearly seconds of flawless moves.
