The first medals of the 2019 Artistic Gymnastics Championships were awarded today with the women's team gold going to Team USA for the fifth consecutive World Championships. But that's not the only top story of today's competition.

USA's golden streak continues

In usual dominating fashion, the U.S. women won the team title by nearly six points with a score of 172.330. They started off very strong on vault with two big scores from Simone Biles and Jade Carey, 15.400 and 15.166, respectively. Grace McCallum added another great score with a 14.600 for her Yurchenko double. Each vault earned an execution score above 9.000, demonstrating Team USA's stellar vaulting ability.

One score in the 12.000 range was counted on both bars and beam as McCallum faltered on bars and Sunisa Lee fell on beam, but the Americans maintained their lead heading into the final rotation. Biles, Lee, and Carey went lights out on floor with three hit routines.

"It's so surreal, to come out on top, with the strength of the team that we have, even after having a couple of falls out there," Biles said. 

With this team gold, Biles has become the most decorate female gymnast in World Championships history.

The routine at #Stuttgart2019 that gave @Simone_Biles her 21st world medal ?

She breaks the female record for most world gymnastics championships medals.pic.twitter.com/np6viL7HQd

— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) October 8, 2019

Italy edges out China for bronze

Just 0.566 separated the third- and-fourth place teams, and Italy came out on top over China today after earning just one low score. The Italians hit vault, bars, and floor to just overtake China for the bronze medal. China's Liu Tingting had uncharacteristic mistakes on bars and beam, falling on both apparatus, allowing Italy to bridge the gap.

Vault and bars were Italy's strongest events with three vaults scoring in the mid-14.000 range and three bars routines in the high-13.000 to low-14.000 range. Giorgia Villa contributed four good scores to lead Italy to the bronze, her country's first team medal since 1950.

When you find out that you've just won a world championships ? medal.
??#Stuttgart2019 pic.twitter.com/4ygUTFXkIa

— FIG (@gymnastics) October 8, 2019

Melnikova leads Russia to silver

Russia overcame beam struggles to defend its team silver from 2018 Worlds, led by Angelina Melnikova's strong all-around performance. Vault and uneven bars were very strong events for the Russians, earning scores from 14.333 to 14.766. Anastasia Agafanova and LIlia Akhaimova both fell on beam, resulting in Russia earning just a 38.465 on the event, but the other three events were strong enough to make up for the mistakes. The Russian team had a solid floor rotation with three scores in the 13.000 range.

"We are happy that we have taken a second place today," Melnikova said. "It's still quite difficult to compete with the Americans and to beat them, but we can see that the gap between the scores is much smaller than it used to be in the past."

Full results from the women's team final can be found on the FIG website.