Simone Biles makes history with second Olympic gymnastics all-around gold medal

Simone Biles with her gold medal, alongside Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade (silver, left) and US teammate Sunisa Lee (bronze, right). Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Simone Biles won her sixth Olympic gold medal, and her second of the Paris Games, on Thursday, seeing off a stiff challenge from Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade to capture the women’s all-around title for a second time.

The 27-year-old returned to the summit of world gymnastics eight years after winning her first Olympic all-around title in Rio, becoming only the third woman in history to earn the sport’s most prestigious title more than once, after Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union (1956 and 1960) and Vera Caslavska of Czechoslovakia (1964 and 1968).

A once-in-a-lifetime athlete who makes the unthinkable look elementary and the extraordinary look effortless, Biles paced the field of 24 gymnasts with 59.131 points. Andrade finished nearly two points adrift to match her silver medal from Tokyo, while Biles’s US teammate Suni Lee, the defending Olympic all-around champion who spent much of the last two years dealing with multiple kidney diseases, took the bronze.

“I just couldn’t believe that I did it,” Biles said afterward. “I know that I did it, but I don’t think it’s hit me just yet. It will probably hit me whenever I go back to the [Olympic Village]. I’m just ecstatic with my performances tonight. And we still have three finals left for me. Now it’s time to have fun and the hard part is over.”

Biles also became the oldest women’s all-around Olympic champion since the Soviet Union’s Maria Gorokhovskaya, who won the gold in 1952 when she was 30. She becomes the sixth straight American woman to win the title after Sunisa Lee (2021), herself (2016), Gabby Douglas (2012), Nastia Liukin (2008) and Carly Patterson (2004).

The historic gold marked Biles’s 39th career medal between the Olympics and world championships, extending her record as the most decorated gymnast in history. Since winning her first national title in 2013, she has won every all-around competition in every meet she has entered.

Although it was the first all-around final to include multiple former Olympic champions in Biles and Lee, Thursday’s contest was largely framed as a showdown between Biles and Andrade, the runner-up at last year’s world championships whose four-event total in Tuesday’s team final was just 0.366 behind Biles.

Biles started her afternoon on the vault, surging down the platform and launching into a sky-high Yurchenko double pike, the hardest vault currently being performed in competition by a female gymnast. Biles had opted against attempting it in Tuesday’s team final. She earned a score of 15.766 despite a few steps back on the landing, easily good for first place and 0.666 ahead of Andrade, who drilled her Cheng with confidence. The fight was on.

Next was the uneven bars, traditionally Biles’s weakest discipline. Andrade went first in the rotation, hitting a gorgeous routine for 14.666, an improvement on her qualifying score. Biles went second but made a significant error, going too high on her Pak salto transition down to the low bar after her pike Tkatchev, then bending her knees to avoid touching the floor, her 4ft 8in frame probably sparing her an even costlier deduction.

Biles’s score of 13.733, which might have been even lower, drew gasps from the crowd when it flashed on the screen as the American dropped into second, 0.267 points behind Andrade after two rotations – then into third after Algerian bars specialist Kaylia Nemour lit up the crowd with a patient, elegant set for a score of 15.533.

For so many years the biggest events the sport can offer have been more coronations than competitions for the American star. But on Thursday, the greatest gymnast of all time was having the question put to her like rarely seen before.

“I’ve put in so many numbers [of routines] on the bars so it was an unfortunate mistake, but I knew to just keep pushing and to not give up,” Biles said. “And that’s exactly what you saw out there. I think Rebeca pushes me to be my best as well. She’s a phenomenal athlete and gymnast. So I’m excited that she was there to push me.”

Biles led off the third rotation on the beam, attacking a routine packed with difficulty through extraordinary pressure and delivering the gut-check performance of a great champion. Her score of 14.566 set the tone for a group with all of the leaders, setting off a standing ovation from the flag-waving US fans who filled the arena. Afterward Biles beamed and clapped and blew kisses to the crowd, the look of frustration she’d shown after her bars routine a distant memory.

But Andrade answered the call, hitting a clean beam routine, save for a few balance checks, to close the group. Her score of 14.133 brought her within 0.166 points of Biles entering the final rotation. The Olympic all-around gold would be settled on the floor.

Andrade, performing second to last, posted a score of 14.033, setting the American’s mark to win the gold at 13.867. And there Biles stood after climbing the carpeted stairs to the competition podium, the thousands of Swarovski crystals on her blue leotard glimmering in the spotlight that was hers alone, savoring the moment before launching into an immaculate routine. Grinning from ear to ear throughout after sticking her first tumbling pass, Biles gained momentum and brio with each foray down the floor amid roars from the crowd.

“All in all, I’m super proud of my performance and the fight I’ve had for the last three years, mentally and physically, to get back competing on a world stage,” said Biles, who recorded the highest scores on vault, beam and floor exercise. “The Olympic Games is an amazing experience, so I couldn’t be prouder. To see where I’ve grown from Tokyo and even the 19-year-old from Rio is amazing. I’m proud of [myself] for putting in the work and never giving up.”

Biles celebrated her gold wearing a diamond-encrusted goat necklace before an animated, celebrity-flecked audience that included USA basketball stars Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. The margin was the smallest in a major international gymnastics event since Biles captured the third of her record six world championships in 2015. But in the end it was enough.