Simone Biles won the all-around gymnastics title for her second Olympic gold in Paris and sixth overall to cement her place back at the top of her sport with yet another sparkling slice of history.
The American, who won the title at Rio 2016 and had been favourite at Tokyo 2020 before she pulled out, became the oldest winner of her sport’s blue-riband event for 72 years in front of another celebrity-studded crowd.
Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade claimed silver at the Bercy Arena, with defending champion Sunisa Lee taking bronze.
The world’s most decorated gymnast, Biles put on a sparkly goat necklace while celebrating – as if there was any doubt about her status as the GOAT (greatest of all time).
“It’s a little ode… a lot of people love it. They always call me the GOAT, so I thought it would be really special if I got one made,” she said.
“The haters hate it, but I like that even more. It’s just a special part of me that I have here.
“In the [athletes’] village I have a stuffed goat. Just to get a reminder, like ‘You can go out there, you can do it. You’ve done it before. So let’s go’.”
At the age of 27, Biles is the first gymnast to win non-consecutive all-around Olympic titles – a demonstration of her longevity in a gruelling sport traditionally dominated by teenagers.
The past 12 Olympic all-around women’s champions were teenagers, and even the last non-teen, Ludmilla Tourischeva, had turned 20 only a few weeks before she won in 1972.
Biles’ intention was clear from the outset of Thursday’s session.
Starting with her ‘Biles II’ vault – the hardest in women’s gymnastics – proved a good decision as she needed that extra buffer of points when she made an uncharacteristic mistake on the uneven bars.
“Thank God we did the double pike today [on vault] as I wasn’t planning on it,” she said.
She was behind Andrade after two rotations but pulled off a difficulty-packed beam routine, fighting off gravity to stay on the 10cm-wide apparatus, to score 14.566 and bring the crowd to their feet as she went back to the top of the standings.
Taking a lead of 0.166 into the final rotation on floor, Biles was last to perform and delivered a flawless demonstration of some of her best skills to post a total of 59.131.
That meant she finished a comfortable 1.199 ahead of Andrade, who could only applaud and enjoy what her rival had done, as did everyone else in the packed arena.
Great Britain’s Alice Kinsella came 12th after a marked improvement on her qualifying performance, and compatriot Georgia-Mae Fenton was 18th.
Biles helped the United States reclaim the team title two days ago, but Thursday evening was about her trying to once again take the prize of world’s best gymnast after the turbulence of Tokyo.
The pressure of expectation she faced going into the Games three years ago, her struggles without her family there because of the pandemic restrictions and her withdrawal from several finals when she suffered the disorientating mental block that gymnasts call the ‘twisties’ are all well-documented.
Biles, who returned to the sport after a two-year break last summer, told reporters she had weekly therapy sessions for the past three years and at other times during these Games.
“It means the world to me,” she said of her victory.
“I’m super proud of my performance and the fight that I’ve had for the last three years – mentally and physically – just to get back.”
But she did not have the easiest ride to gold, saying: “I’ve never been so stressed before – thank you Rebeca.”
She went as far as to say she never wanted to compete against the Brazilian again, although that will be hard in Paris as they have both qualified for the vault, beam and floor finals.
“I’ve never had an athlete that close – it definitely put me on my toes and brought out the best athlete in myself,” she said of Andrade, who was also the silver medallist in Tokyo.
A huge gasp sounded round the arena – where Kendall Jenner and basketball star Stephen Curry were among those attending – when she made a mistake when making a transition to the lower bar, needing to bend both knees to avoid touching the ground, and missed a connection to score 13.733 on uneven bars.
But that is traditionally the ‘weakest’ of her four pieces – and after some quick reassurance from her husband that she could still win she made up ground and stretched ahead with 14.566 on beam and 15.066 on floor.
Biles has said she does not keep count of her statistics; instead saying it is all about going out there and doing what she loves.
It could be said, of course, that with so many records, it actually is genuinely hard to keep track. Although she did correct someone at the news conference who said she had nine Olympic golds rather than nine medals.
This final alone was historic; it was the first time two female Olympic all-around champions had gone head-to-head for a second title, with Biles facing team-mate Lee – the Tokyo 2020 gold medallist.
Biles was already the most decorated gymnast coming into the Paris Games.
Her tally of world and Olympic medals stood at 37 – and she has now taken that to 39, with chances to add to it in the floor, beam and vault finals in the coming days.
With the team gold on Tuesday that took her to eight Olympic medals, she overtook Shannon Miller as the most decorated American Olympic gymnast – and she has now made that nine.
Biles also holds the record for most women’s all-around world titles (six) and most World Championships medals (30).
She had the chance to set another record on Thursday – had she performed a new skill on bars that she had submitted to the International Gymnastics Federation she would have been the only active gymnast to have skills named after her on all four apparatus.
But she did not attempt it – and did not need to since her arsenal of other unique and high-value skills were more than enough to seal the gold.
(BBC Sports)
