Simone Biles Wins Second Olympic Individual All-Around Title in Epic Showdown
Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles proved that on Thursday night, overcoming an early mistake to win her second Olympic Individual All-Around title at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Biles won the gold medal with an all-around score of 59.131, while Brazil’s Rebecca Andrade took the silver medal with 57.932. Suni Lee of the United States completed the podium with 56.465 points.
The three women have already achieved their first Olympic individual all-around podium finishes. “For me personally, tonight, and it means the world to me, and it’s just crazy,” Biles said afterward.
Biles won her first title eight years ago at Rio 2016. Lee and Andrade won gold and silver at the Tokyo 2020 Games three years ago.
Three years ago at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Biles may have been hoping for the best. Instead, the superstar was forced to withdraw from the women’s team final and the following four finals as she prioritized her mental health after experiencing what gymnasts call “crunches,” where the body and mind become out of sync.
This sparked a global debate about mental health in sport. It also pushed her to work hard, both physically and mentally, to get back on top of the world.
“I never thought I would step foot in a gymnastics ring again just because of everything that’s happened,” Biles said. “But with the help of Cecil and Laurent Randy, I returned to the gymnasium and worked hard both mentally and physically.
“I met a therapist even at 7:00 am this morning at 7:00 am. It’s hard to believe that I will allow you to spend this two days here because of time changes.” I pursued it. I guarantee that I am mentally energetic. I think you see that on the competition field.
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The world also witnessed an intense fight.
Although Biles entered with an impressive 15.766 on vault – her daring double Yurchenko vault was the highest score of the night – her 0.666 lead evaporated after she nearly fell on a high-and-low somersault on the uneven bars. Her 13.733 left her 0.267 behind Andrade heading into the beam, which is not a position Biles is comfortable in. The last time she was beaten in the World Individual All-Around Final was in Rio 2016, when Russia’s Aliya Mustafina had led from start to finish in each of the previous three World Individual All-Around Finals and was ahead at the halfway point. “I don’t want to compete against Rebecca anymore. I was tired, she was too close,” Biles joked. “I’d never been that close with an athlete before, so it definitely made me nervous and brought out the best athlete in me.” I’m excited and proud to compete with her, but I’m nervous, guys. I emphasized that I don’t like this feeling. “”
“I swear, I’ve never seen you feel stressed in my life,” Lee added.
“If I did my job, I knew it would be a good thing,” said Villes. “But after the bars, when I saw the score, I was like, ‘Oh my God.’
Biles restarted.
While the other women in her rotation competed on bars, the 27-year-old could be seen in a meditative state on the sidelines. “I was probably praying to all the gods and trying to get myself focused and refocused because these are not the same bars that I trained on,” she said of the moment after her miss. “Just refocusing and trying to shine somehow. I’m in first place, so now it’s just a matter of getting my team back together and finishing the rest of the competition, because it’s not over until it’s over.”
The calm and precise way Biles performed her beam routine was evidence of the work she’d put in to get there. This earned her a score of 14.566, just 0.166 points behind her best result going into her final event, the floor exercise, where she dazzled and left no doubt that she would win the gold medal again with a score of 15.066. The happy ending was achieved.
Before Biles, no woman had ever won two Olympic all-around titles without a break. Two women (Larissa Latynina 1956-60 and Vera Caslavska 1964-68) and four men (Alberto Braglia 1908-12; Victor Chukarin 1952-56; Kato Sawao 1968-72; and Uchimura Kohei 2012-16) hold two Olympic all-around gold medals
It was Biles’ ninth medal at the Games, bringing her career total to six gold, one silver and two bronze. At 27, she will be the oldest woman to win the individual all-around crown in 72 years, since Maria Gorokhovskaya, then 30, won gold at the inaugural Games in Helsinki in 1952.
She was unable to match Latynina’s all-around record of 18 medals, but could match the Soviet great women’s gold medal total (nine) if she takes the lead with victories on the vault and floor and beam finals on Saturday (Aug. 3). She will practice on Monday (Aug. 5). Biles hasn’t lost the all-around competition since the friendly tournament in Germany early in 2013, won by 2012 Olympic team champion Kayla Ross.
