us women's olympic gymnastics team

Have you screamed yet today? I mean, really stood up and screamed your mother-lovin' head off? Because the American women's gymnastics team just gave us a pretty darn good reason to jump up and down and holler. I am so freaking proud of these young women. I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone -- but it's been 16 years since the U.S. women's gymnastics team pulled off a team effort this exciting ... SPOILER ALERT!!!

That's right, our girls won gold for team gymnastics! And it wasn't by a hair, either. With a score of 183.596, they were a whole five points ahead of silver-winning Russia.

The women's team nailed it from the start with the vaulting event: Every single team member did the super-challenging, high-scoring vault, the Amanar. And each team member nailed it. And with that incredibly confident performance, they went on to dominate almost all of the rest of the events.

In fact, it looks like intimidation was part of the U.S. team's strategy. Reportedly, whenever they spied the Russians or Romanians peering into their training sessions, "they would add some extra oomph to their routines, the better to intimidate the competition." WERK, girls! Not only did the U.S. women soar in their events, the Russian faltered noticeably on the balance beam even though they dominated on the uneven bars.

With sports it's really hard to tell which is more important: Amazing skills built from intense practice or undeniable confidence. I think both feed into each other. You really can't play head games with your opponent if you don't have the skills to back yourself up. And you need confidence to know you can work your way to that physical might. Either way, I'm feeling so inspired by the U.S. women's gymnastics team today!

Have you seen the U.S. women's Olympic gymnastics team yet?

 

Image via @jordyn_weiber/Twitter