RIO DE JANEIRO —Simone Biles owned the vault. Now she's owning the medal podium.

Biles soared through the air — an unbeatable lightness of being — and secured the best score of the afternoon with her first vault. Her Olympian standards, however, are slightly higher than most, so she topped her score with her second vault.

It was Biles' third gold medal in Rio, making her the first U.S. female gymnast to win three golds in one Olympics and the first American woman to win the vault at the Olympics.

The margin of victory was enormous: Her two vaults averaged 15.966, beating silver medalist Maria Paseka of Russia, with 15.253, and bronze medalist Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland, with 15.216.

Before Sunday, the vault has been the only individual apparatus title to elude Biles at the world level. Her first vault, an Amanar — a round-off onto the springboard, a back handspring onto the horse, and a flip with 21/2 twists — earned a 15.900 and she even hit bigger, getting 16.033, on her second vault.

“I had been working on it [the Cheng], on and off, for a year,” Biles said. “It was never quite ready to do because I would get lost in the air. At worlds, we didn't want do it … it just wasn't right. I wasn't feeling it.

“After worlds, that's all I put my focus into it.”

Aimee Boorman, Biles' longtime coach, said: “Ironically, when she first entered the elite world, we thought maybe you'll make the world team and be a vault specialist.” Years later, the would-be specialist has become a special gymnast of a generation.

The implications have started to sink in for Biles here. She has two events remaining and could leave with five gold medals.

“Sometimes if I'm lying in bed and I'm impressed with myself,” she said. “I woke up the other morning and [teammate Laurie Hernandez] was like, ‘Hey, Simone, you did it.' I was like, ‘Oh, I guess I did it.'?”

Said Boorman: “I don't think she understands the explosion. All the girls on the team, we're in this bubble right now, this Olympic bubble. ‘This is fun. We're winning medals.' When we get home they have no idea what's to come — it's going to be interesting.”

The medal collection for the U.S. gymnastics team continued to accumulate Sunday. Madison Kocian took the silver in the women's uneven bars, following Alex Naddour's bronze-medal effort on the men's pommel horse.

Naddour's performance ended a 32-year medal drought on the pommel horse for the United States. Max Whitlock and Louis Smith, both of Britain, went one-two.

It was the first gymnastics medal for the U.S. men in Rio. Jake Dalton and Sam Mikulak finished sixth and eighth. Mikulak's missteps were cheered by Brazilian fans, who were eager for countrymen Diego Hypolito and Arthur Mariano to maintain their silver and bronze positions, which they did.

Bolt is first to win three straight 100-meter titles: If there were any doubts, it took less than 10 seconds — 9.81, to be exact — for Usain Bolt to erase them.

He is the Olympic champion once again.

On a muggy Sunday night in Rio, the Jamaican superstar won the signature event in track and field in a runaway and added this line to his already gleaming resume: first person to capture three straight 100-meter titles at the Olympics.

The 6-foot-5 sprinter-celebrity overcame his typically slow unfurling from the blocks, gradually worked up speed, caught American Justin Gatlin with 40 meters left and was celebrating — pointing at his chest with his thumb — before he crossed the finish line.

Bolt beat Gatlin, who was greeted by the fans with raucous boos, by .08 of a second. Andre de Grasse of Canada won the bronze.

A few minutes after the finish, Bolt was unlacing those now-famous gold spikes and taking selfies with the fans. Then, he turned his yellow hat backward, kneeled down and gave the crowd what it really wanted. It's that famous, arching “To the World Pose” that he debuted eight years ago in Beijing.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.