With her sixth career gold medal and her second Olympic all-around triumph, Simone Biles once again reached the peak of her craft.
The first time two Olympic all-around champions have finished on the same medal podium has occurred when Biles (59.131) defeated competitor Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, who will defend her silver medal in the all-around competition from Tokyo (57.932), and Suni Lee, the bronze medallist from Tokyo (56.465).
Larisa Latynina (1956 and 1960) and Vera Caslavska (1964 and 1968) are the only two other women in history to have won the all-around championship twice, thus Biles is in company.
Following Carly Patterson’s 2004 gold medal win, Biles’ triumph extends the American women’s all-around gold medal run to six Games in a row.
Surpassing 30 years old when she won the championship in the 1952 Helsinki Games, Biles is the second-oldest female gymnast to accomplish the accomplishment in 72 years at the age of 27.
“Three years ago I never thought I’d step foot on a gymnastics floor again because of everything that had happened but with the help of Cecile and Laurent (Landi) I got back in the gym and worked really hard mentally and physically,” Biles said after the contest.
“Today, I visited my therapist even at seven in the morning. To be clear, you can probably tell that I’m in good mental health while I’m competing. Even though I still consider myself to be the Spring, Texas, flipper Simone Biles, it’s absurd that I’m in the discussion with the best athletes of all time.”
Despite her earlier struggles and disappointments, Biles persevered and gave a performance that the world saw in wonder when she performed in Paris.
Taking the vault by storm, Biles began her evening with a 0.666-point lead after sending her named Yurchenko double pike upwards.
Although Biles initially had no intention of competing in the Yurchenko double pike, she eventually concluded that she could use the score bump as an opportunity to put Andrade behind her. She acknowledged this after the competition.
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“I don’t want to compete with Rebeca no more – I’m tired,” Biles said in jest. “She’s getting too near.” It tested me to the fullest and brought out the best athlete (in me) since I’ve never had an athlete that close. Guys, this is becoming awkward! I was tensing up.
A mistimed Pak Salto on the uneven bars cost Biles on the second rotation. In an attempt to regain her rhythm, she bowed her knee a lot and took an additional stroke.
“I’m not sure what the camera caught or what I was doing,” stated Biles. “I was probably praying to all the gods in the universe in an attempt to pull myself back into focus and centre because those aren’t the bars I’ve been practicing.”
During my whole training here in Houston and back in Houston, I believe that bars is the event that I haven’t failed at. In order to ensure that, because I’m first up, I can simply concentrate and complete the remainder of the tournament since it’s never finished until it is.”
In the last circle, Biles clinched the victory with a fantastic floor routine, but first she recovered on the balance beam.
After leading Team Brazil to a historic team bronze medal, Andrade—generally seen as Biles’ fiercest rival—is having a great time. After clinching in her fourth career Olympic gold, Andrade began the tournament with a stuck Cheng.
Andrade said, “I’m just beyond grateful and happy.” The competition was fierce. The three days of competition—the qualifying round, the team championship, and the individual all-around—are very challenging, but I’m pleased with my performance.
After receiving diagnoses of two different renal ailments in early 2023, Lee’s road back to the all-around gold podium has been difficult. It is a remarkable achievement in and of itself that Lee returned to participate in her second Games after a doctor had once warned her she would probably never perform gymnastics again.
With her sixth Olympic gold, she is now departing.
According to Lee, “It’s taken so much.” “It’s incredible that I was here and I did all I could, as I was saying to everyone today. I truly didn’t even believe I’d take the stage.
Not wanting to dwell back on the previous Olympics or attempt to prove anything to anybody, I told myself not to put any pressure on myself. All I wanted was to show myself that I could do something I had never thought I could.”