Renowned American gymnast Simone Biles outlasted Brazil's Rebeca Andrade to win her second gold medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics on Thursday afternoon.
Biles secured the collective title with Team USA earlier in the week and became the first woman to win two all-around titles in more than 50 years.
The 27-year-old gymnastics sensation continues to defy her age — Biles became the oldest all-around champion since Maria Gorokhovskaya in 1952 and the first winner older than 20 since 1968 — with a dominant first-rotation performance on the vault. Biles landed another reminder to her transformative impact on the sport by executing a Yurchenko double pike, later renamed the Biles II after she became the first woman to execute the maneuver in a competition last year.
Andrade would receive higher marks for execution — Biles took a noted step back while completing her landing — but the greater difficulty of the American's performance gave her a .6-point lead through the first rotation.
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Biles' score of historic accomplishments appeared in grave jeopardy after a rocky performance on the uneven bars, nearly allowing her knees to touch the mat while transitioning to the lower rod. She admirably saved her performance, but this deduction dropped her into third place, .2 points behind Andrade and Algeria's Kaylia Nemour, entering the balance beam routine.
Typically forging comical leads ahead of her overmatched competition by the third rotation, Biles transformed this newfound pressure into a glittering balance beam routine, surviving a few minor deductions and dazzling with her aerial routine to secure a stellar 14.566 mark.
Biles entered the final floor routine with a slim .2-point lead over Andrade, the Brazilian continuing to apply pressure with a stellar 14.003 score. The diminutive American would not be denied, however, one-upping Andrade with an incredible 15.066 performance and earning gold by more than a point.
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Upon completing her triumphant floor routine, Biles provided a brilliant tribute to her historic gymnastic success. She placed a diamond chain around her neck that depicted a goat, a reference to the recently popularized Greatest of All Time acronym.
Yet another gold medal for the 4'8 sensation placed her among an elite few in Olympic gymnastics history. Biles became just the third athlete to win multiple individual all-around gold medals, joining Czechoslovakia's Vera Caslavska and the Soviet Union's Larisa Latynina.
The Ohio native is also now the only athlete to win the individual honor in non-successive competitions. Biles won the 2016 gold in Rio de Janeiro but withdrew from the Tokyo Games after a cited battle with "twisties," described as a disconnect between body and mind often suffered by gymnasts.
After a lengthy hiatus from gymnastics, Biles managed to reconcile this mental block, telling NBC Connecticut in 2023 "I’m fine. I’m twisting again. No worries. All is good." Biles was evidently back at her transcendent best in Paris this summer, joining Ludmilla Tourischeva and Nadia Comaneci for fourth in the all-time individual Olympic gymnastics medal tally with 10.
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