The cameras flashed. The exhausted Fierce Five smiled and just like that, it was over.

The best women's gymnastics team in the world — Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, Kyla Ross and McKayla Maroney — then walked in single file toward the exit and into a busy but uncertain future.

Sure, they'll be together again when they return to the U.S. next week as part of the media blitz that comes when you storm to Olympic glory. And there will be the cross-country exhibition tour through the fall.

After that, who knows?

While women's team coordinator Martha Karolyi believes the group could "physically and gymnastically go on for another quadrennium," reality might not let them.

They left home a month ago hoping to become the first American team to reach the top of the podium in 16 years. They'll leave the games famous.

All teenagers, there's a chance they could have a reunion in Rio de Janeiro in four years. That is, if life doesn't get in the way.

"Things are going to change for us," said Maroney, who added a silver on vault.

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Some quick thinking from Martha and Bela Karolyi helped, too.

The ever-steady, ever-stoic captain of the U.S. women's Olympic gymnastics team made history during the event finals on Tuesday, becoming the first American to win gold on floor exercise. She added a bronze on balance beam to cap off an already impressive two-week run.

Not bad for the athlete who's the often overlooked core of the superstar group of U.S. gymnasts known as the "Fierce Five."

Five days after a tiebreaker cost her bronze in the all-around, Raisman won a tiebreaker to reach the podium on beam and turned the confidence boost into what she called the best floor routine of her life.

"Wow!" she yelled after finishing four flawless tumbling runs over 90 nearly flawless seconds. Then she raced to hug coach Mihai Brestyan.

He reminded her to enjoy the moment.

"I told her, 'That's the maximum you can get, now just wait for the color,'" Brestyan said.

It was gold. A sparkly bookend to the gold she helped the U.S. grab in the team finals last week.

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Really, what was there to figure out?

Guys that play football at St. Bonaventure don't get phone calls from NFL teams, not now and certainly not in 1951, when Butler graduated following a standout career at wide receiver.

So Butler headed home to Pittsburgh for the summer and got a job as an electrician to give him something to do before he returned to upstate New York and started on his master's degree in the fall.

Then the phone rang. And everything changed.

When Pittsburgh Steelers business manager Fran Fogarty called and asked the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Butler to come to the team's offices downtown, Butler figured Fogarty had the wrong number.

"I didn't know who he was," Butler said. "I didn't know anything about professional football."

Learning was hardly a problem. Fogarty and the Steelers were happy to teach him, signing Butler to a $4,000 contract and converting him to defensive back.

There wasn't much to it. Butler used his experience as a wide receiver to become one of the best defensive backs of the 1950s in a career cut short by a devastating knee injury that remains painful to this day.

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Now it has to make sure that depth doesn't accidentally lead to its downfall.

Sure, the Americans rolled to victory in Olympic team qualifying on Sunday, posting a score of 181.863 that only Russia came even remotely close to threatening.

But the image of world champion Jordyn Wieber leaving the floor in tears after failing to advance to the individual all-around final will be hard to shake. Beaten out by teammates Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas, the ever-composed Wieber crumbled when she realized her dreams of joining the likes of Olympic gold medalists Nastia Liukin, Mary Lou Retton and Carly Patterson evaporated in a series of uncharacteristic miscues.

Now, Wieber has to find a way to regroup in time to help the U.S. capture its first team title since the "Magnificent Seven" in Atlanta 16 years ago.

"This is the beauty of our program," USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny said. "On any given day one of the girls on our team can do it."

True, except for the last three years, that one girl has almost always been Wieber. She's only lost twice in competition since 2009, both times to fellow Americans. And she's never finished behind two teammates in the same meet.

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The reigning world champions and heavy gold-medal favorites will begin Sunday's team qualification on vault, their strongest event, where a busted big toe won't keep McKayla Maroney from doing her thing.

The 16-year-old will anchor the U.S. on their signature event despite aggravating a toe injury in practice during the run-up to the games.

"Vault is what I'm here for," Maroney said. "I knew I was going to do vault no matter what."

And nobody in the world does the difficult Amanar better than the dynamo from Long Beach, Calif., who rocketed to a world title in Tokyo last fall while helping the U.S. win the championship by a whopping four points.

The same is expected in London, where the U.S. will attempt to capture Olympic gold for the first time since the "Magnificent Seven" triumphed in Atlanta 16 years ago.

World all-around champion Jordyn Wieber, trials winner Gabby Douglas and team captain Aly Raisman will do all four events for the U.S., with Kyla Ross replacing Maroney on uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise.

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Pletcher could just as well have been talking about the jumbled Derby picture itself.

Looking for racing's next star to emerge at Churchill Downs on Saturday? Look elsewhere, as a series of defections over the last month have turned a race typically consisting of a "who's who" among the sport's top 3-year-olds into a race of "who's that?"

The Factor. Jaycito. To Honor and Serve. Premier Pegasus. Toby's Corner. All were considered legitimate Derby shots at some point. All will be well out of sight when the 137th edition of the Run for the Roses unfolds under the twin spires.

In their place are horses such as Watch Me Go, Shackleford and Derby Kitten. Largely unknown. Largely unproven. Their connections largely unapologetic for the position they will find themselves in when the starting gate opens at 6:24 p.m. EDT.

"There's only one Kentucky Derby," said owner Ken Ramsey, who didn't get Derby Kitten into the race until a day before entries were due. "Nobody will care how we got here if we win."

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Trainer Todd Pletcher said he's pulling the 3-year-old colt out of next weekend's race due swelling in his left front leg.

Eskendereya stamped himself as the horse to beat after romping to wins in the Fountain of Youth and the Wood Memorial by a combined 18 1/4 lengths.

He was scheduled to work at Churchill Downs on Sunday morning, but Pletcher opted to keep the muscular chestnut colt in the barn while sending his other Derby entries out on the track.

Pletcher said he detected something was "off" with the horse when he galloped on Saturday morning and later noticed swelling between the ankle and knee of the left front leg. It had worsened when Pletcher arrived at the barn Sunday morning and he sent owner Ahmed Zayat a text informing him of the problem.

"We were still kind of hoping for a miracle overnight and we didn't get it," Pletcher said. "It's the worst of timing."

Pletcher stressed that "the horse is not lame" and he's hoping the injury, which he likened to a sprained ankle in a human, isn't career-threatening. Eskendereya will undergo a thorough examination when the swelling subsides, but Pletcher said he'll speak to Zayat before making any decision on what to do next.

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