(Paris) American superstar Simone Biles was crowned champion in the artistic gymnastics individual all-around competition on Thursday evening, winning her second gold medal at the Paris 2024 Games and the sixth Olympic gold of her career.
Behind the 27-year-old American, the 25-year-old Brazilian Rebeca Andrade took silver and the bronze went to Sunisa Lee, another 21-year-old American, who lost her title.
Biles, with her breathtaking floor performance and a big smile on her face, won the event with 59,131 points, to Andrade’s 57,932 and Lee’s 56,465.
Canadian Ellie Black took sixth place with a total of 54,799.
With this new victory, the second after the one in the team all-around competition obtained with her American partners, Biles consolidates her stature as a legend of artistic gymnastics, with nine Olympic medals, including five collected in Rio in 2016.
PHOTO MIKE BLAKE, REUTERS
Simone Biles and her breathtaking floor performance, a big smile on her face, won the event with 59,131 points.
This sixth gold makes her surpass the prestigious list of Romanian legend Nadia Comăneci (five gold medals).
It also brings her into the very exclusive club of athletes who have won the individual all-around competition twice at the Olympic Games. She joins the Soviet Larissa Latynina (1956 and 1960) and the Czech Věra Čáslavská (1964 and 1968), who had won their titles consecutively.
Simone Biles, based in Texas and coached by Frenchmen Cécile and Laurent Landi, is still qualified for three of the four upcoming individual finals, with the exception of the uneven bars.
Her apparatus finals will follow on Saturday (vault) and Monday (beam and floor).
Three years ago in Tokyo, the team all-around final turned into a nightmare for Biles. She abruptly dropped out before explaining that she was struggling with the dangerous spatial shifts that gymnasts face.
PHOTO PAUL CHILDS, REUTERS
This sixth gold makes her surpass the prestigious list of Romanian legend Nadia Comăneci.
Nevertheless, she won a silver medal with the United States, but only took part in the beam final at the end of the competition, where she won a bronze medal.
Biles did not return to competition until two years later, in the summer of 2023 in the United States, and the following fall on the international stage, with an astonishing quadruple at the World Championships in Antwerp (Belgium).
His collection of medals, including 29 gold in total between the World Championships and the Olympic Games, built up since 2013, remains unmatched.