Simone Biles Becomes Most Decorated U.S. Olympian Gymnast In History With All-Around Gold

Source: DeFodi Images / Getty

Biles, 27, bested Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade and her teammate Suni Lee, the defending Olympic champion, to take the gold at Bercy Arena. She did so with a commanding performance on floor exercise, which she does at the highest difficulty in the sport. She is the oldest gymnast to win gold since 1952.

Biles’ triumph comes after her withdrawal in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics in the team and individual all-around events. She announced then that she’d been experiencing something gymnasts call ‘the twisties’ when they lose their sense of where they are in the air, something essential to gymnasts being able to complete their routines.

Biles’ attributed her challenges to stress and trauma. She was viewed then, as she is now, as one of the major faces of the Games. Though she would compete on the beam, winning a bronze medal and was part of the team’s silver medal, she was as widely criticized as praised for prioritizing her mental and physical health. In her Neflix documentary Simone Rising she talked about the pressure she was under.

Now Biles is firmly atop the gymnastic world, having won nine Olympic medals – six gold, one silver and two bronze. She surpassed the former record holder, Magnificent 7 gymnast Shannon Miller who won eight. Biles can win three more medals in Paris as she’s competing in the balance beam, floor exercises and vault competition where athletes compete for individual medals on each apparatus.

“Three years ago, I never thought I’d step foot on a gym mat again,” Biles said after the competition. “Super proud of my performance tonight, couldn’t be prouder.”

But this win didn’t come without drama. MyKayla Skinner, who competed for the U.S. as an individual athlete in the Tokyo Olympics and won a silver on vault, was critical of the current U.S. team, which includes Jordan Chiles, Lee, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera. She said on a podcast that aside from Biles, the rest of the team lacked a work ethic as well as “talent” and “depth.”

When Biles and the U.S. team won gold, Biles posted “Lack of talent, lazy Olympic champions.”

After the post, she says Skinner blocked her on social media , as Lee stepped into the fray with a since-deleted post.

Skinner apologized for her comments in a July 6 Instagram post.

“I want to formally apologize to Team USA and to our gymnastic community for my comments during my recent YouTube episodes of the gymnastics Olympic trials,” Skinner said. “It was not my intention to offend or disrespect any of the athletes or to take away from their hard work.”

None of this takes the shine off Biles’ crown. She celebrated with her teammates, family including her parents Nellie and Ronald Biles, and her husband, Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens. She was praised online by everyone from Angel Reese to Viola Davis to SZA to former USA gymnasts Nastia Liukin, Laurie Hernandez and McKayla Maroney, who said she felt she needed apologize “on behalf of her name.”

Spike Lee, Steph Curry, Tony Hawk, Kendall Jenner and Bill Gates were all in attendance at Thursday night’s competition. Barack Obama acknowledged Biles in a post from his official account.

https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1818407887573549270

Biles will next be seen on vault at Saturday’s competition that starts at 10:20 a.m. EST on all NBC networks and Peacock.

The gymnastics events conclude on Monday with the floor exercise finals.