Biles back on top: Simone Biles clinches second Olympic all-around gold

With her second Olympic all-around title and sixth career gold, Simone Biles once again rose to the top of her sport.

Biles finished ahead of Brazilian rival Rebeca Andrade, who will defend her Tokyo Olympic all-around silver (57.932), and Tokyo Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee, who will take home the bronze (56.465). This is the first time that two Olympic all-around champions have landed on the same podium as medal winners.

Only two other women have ever won the all-around championship twice: Biles is in good company with Larisa Latynina (1956 and 1960) and Vera Caslavska (1964 and 1968).

With her victory, Biles extends the American women’s all-around gold medal streak to six Games in a row, beginning with Carly Patterson’s 2004 victory.

At age 27, Biles is likewise the most established female tumbler to accomplish the accomplishment in 72 years – second just to Maria Gorokhovskaya who came out on top for the championship at age 30 during the 1952 Helsinki Games.

“A long time back I never suspected I’d step foot on a tumbling floor again due to all that had occurred yet with the assistance of Cecile and Laurent (Landi) I got back in the exercise center and really buckled down intellectually and genuinely,” Biles said following the opposition. ” I saw my therapist even at 7 a.m. this morning. This is just to make sure I’m mentally healthy. I think you can see that on the competition floor. At the end of the day, it’s crazy that I’m in the conversation about the greatest athletes of all time because I still think I’m Simone Biles, a flipper from Spring, Texas.

In Paris, Biles put on a show for the ages despite previous difficulties and setbacks, to the amazement of the entire world.

Biles started her evening on vault by sending her eponymous Yurchenko double jump into the stratosphere, giving her a 0.666-point lead right away.

After the competition, Biles admitted that she initially did not intend to compete in the Yurchenko double jump, but that she ultimately decided she could benefit from the score boost in order to distance herself from Andrade.

Biles jokingly stated, “I’m tired and don’t want to compete with Rebeca any more.” She’s excessively close. I’ve never been so close to an athlete, so it definitely kept me on my toes and brought out the best in me as an athlete… Guys, I’m getting nervous! I was worried.”

Biles mistimed her Pak Salto on the uneven bars in the second rotation. She took a second swing to regain her rhythm and had a big knee bend as a result.

“I don’t know what the camera got or what I was doing,” Biles said. ” I probably prayed to each and every God in the universe; trying to refocus and recenter myself because I have been training on different bars. Out of the multitude of occasions, I think bars is the one I haven’t screwed up once the entire whole preparation here or back in Houston. So just refocusing and making sure that since I’m first up, when we go to beam, I can recenter myself and finish the competition because it doesn’t end until it ends.

Biles fell in the standings for a short time, but he came back on balance beam and won the competition with an electric floor routine in the final rotation.

Andrade, who is generally viewed as Biles’ greatest opponent, is riding a high in the wake of assisting lead With joining Brazil to a memorable group bronze decoration. Andrade began the opposition with a stuck Cheng and didn’t think back, securing in her fourth vocation Olympic decoration.

Andrade stated, “I’m just very happy and grateful.” There was a fierce competition. I’m very pleased with how I performed despite the three days of competition (qualification, team final, and individual all-around).”

The excursion back to the overall decoration platform has been a fight for Lee, who was determined to have two sorts of kidney illnesses in mid 2023. Lee’s ability to compete in her second Games after being told by a doctor that she would probably never do gymnastics again is remarkable in and of itself.

Presently she is leaving with her fifth Olympic award.

Lee stated, “It’s taken so much.” It’s crazy that I was here and did everything I could, as I told everyone today that I really didn’t even think I would get on the podium. I told myself not to come down on myself since I would have rather not pondered the previous Olympics or attempting to demonstrate anything to anyone, since I simply needed to demonstrate to myself that I could do it since I didn’t believe that I would be able.”