Bulgarians Leading After Preliminaries

Rhythmic group gymnastics made its debut as an Olympic sport and the Americans, as expected, did not make the first cut.

The top six teams advanced to today’s finals. Bulgaria, the defending world champion, finished first in the preliminary round, its six-woman team scoring 39.016 points for their routines with hoops, and balls and ribbons. Spain was second and Russia third.

Italy and Germany were knocked out along with the last-place United States.