Simone Biles has won her sixth gold medal in the Olympics 2024 gymnastics following a tense finale in the all-around final in Paris on Thursday.
After spearheading the USA gymnastics team to gold on Tuesday, it was time for Biles to solidify her claim as one of the greatest women’s gymnasts of all time by claiming the all-around title.
And the 27-year-old recovered from a minor blip on the bars to see off an admirable challenge from Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, clinching the gold on the floor with a sensational routine. Andrade took silver for Brazil, ahead of USA’s Sunisa Lee with the bronze.
The 27-year-old won the all-around title eight years after doing so in Rio 2016 and three years after having to drop out in the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games.
It marked a welcome return to the very top for Biles, who took a two-year hiatus after being struck down by the dreaded ‘twisties’. Biles withdrew from the team final in Tokyo as a result of the disorientating mental block, which put her career at the highest level in jeopardy.
But she silenced her doubters in Paris to claim yet another stunning gold medal, tumbling and twisting her way to victory – even after making an uncharacteristic error midway through the competition.
Biles topped the qualifying scores ahead of Andrade and Lee. With the top six qualifiers starting on the vault, she set the standard with a phenomenal routine rated 6.400 in difficulty by the judges, and received a huge reception as she took an early advantage.
The American looked supremely focused as she prepared for the vault and the smile on her face said it all, as her triple flip earned her an impressive score of 15.766, putting her ahead of Andrade (15.100) and Lee (13.933).
She was less confident on the uneven bars and nearly fell off at one stage with a rare error, before recovering with a double back and clean dismount.
That only earned her a 13.433 after deductions, putting her behind Andrade on the leaderboard after the Brazilian scored a 14.666.
After the first two rotations, Biles was only in the bronze medal position with Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour, 17, ahead of her following a fantastic uneven bars routine, and Andrade leading the way for Brazil.
But she fought back with a superb balance beam routine, finishing with a full twisting double back to prompt the crowd to give her a standing ovation as she landed a 14.566.
That was enough to put her back in the gold medal position after three rounds, with a small lead of 0.166 over Andrade. And with Andrade scoring 14.033 on the floor, Biles’ score of 15.066 was good enough to land her the title after another breathtaking routine.
Team GB began their first rotation on the floor with Georgia-Mae Fenton – the reigning two-time Commonwealth champion on uneven bars – scoring a 13.033.
Alice Kinsella scored 12.843 in her floor routine, with both scores higher than their qualifying marks. Both looked assured in their routines, although the difficulty was some way off what Biles and Andrade had attempted.
While Kinsella, 23, finished outside of the medal places, her eighth-place finish represented the best-ever Team GB performance in the all-around event, while Fenton took 10th place.
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