Image copyright PA Media
Caption: Simone Biles claimed all-around gold after 8 years.Article information
- Author, Sonia Oxley
- Role, BBC Sport
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August 1, 2024
It was a return to her rightful place as the world’s best gymnast.
Three years ago, Simone Biles experienced a crisis of depression and anxiety in Tokyo 2020 that forced her to withdraw from the competition in order to prioritize her mental health.
But that stage was overcome and on Thursday the American won her second Olympic gold in the all-around at Paris 2024. The medal would be the sixth gold of her career.
It also makes her the oldest winner (27 years old) of the sport’s top event in more than seven decades.
The event saw Biles in great shape, with the strength and mentality to even recover from some mistakes.
Brazilian Rebeca Andrade also stood out: despite injuries, she took silver at the Bercy Arena in the French capital. The defending champion, American Sunisa Lee, took bronze.
Balance beam
At 27, she is the first gymnast to win non-consecutive Olympic titles in the all-around, demonstrating her vast talent in a grueling sport traditionally dominated by teenagers.
The last 12 Olympic women’s all-around champions were teenagers, and even the last non-teenager, Ludmilla Tourischeva, had turned 20 just weeks before winning in 1972.
Uneven bars
Image source, Reuters
Floor
After two rotations, Andrade was second, but she performed a complicated beam routine, fighting gravity to stay on the apparatus (which is 10 cm wide). She scored 14.566 points, which put her at the top of the standings.
With a .166 lead going into the final floor rotation, Biles was the last to perform and gave a flawless display of some of her best skills to achieve a total of 59.131.
Thus, he finished with a comfortable lead of 1,199 over Andrade, who could only applaud and enjoy what his rival had done, as did the large audience that gathered at the venue.
Vaulting
Biles has stated that she doesn’t keep track of her stats, but rather just goes out and does what she loves.
You could say, of course, that with so many records it’s really hard to keep track.
This final alone was historic: it was the first time two Olympic champions had faced off for a second title, and Biles was up against fellow Tokyo 2020 gold medalist Lee.
Her Olympic and world medal tally stood at 37, and is now 39, with the possibility of increasing that number in the floor, beam and vault finals in the coming days.
With Tuesday’s team gold, which gave her eight Olympic medals, she surpassed Shannon Miller as the most decorated U.S. Olympic gymnast, taking her total to nine.
Caption: Biles has 8 Olympic medals so far.
Biles also holds the record for women’s world titles (six) and World Championship medals (30).
On Thursday, she had the chance to break another record: Had she performed a new skill she submitted to the International Gymnastics Federation on the bars, she would have become the only active gymnast to have skills named after her on all four apparatus.
But he didn’t try, and he didn’t need to, as his arsenal of other unique and invaluable skills was more than enough to seal the gold.
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