American gymnast Simone Biles has regained the gold medal in the artistic all-around competition at the Olympic Games on Thursday, taking over from her compatriot Sunisa Lee, who took silver at the 2024 Paris Games in a final where Brazilian Rebeca Andrade completed the podium with bronze.
The rivalry between Biles, Lee and Andrade, fierce on the scoreboard but friendly inside the Bercy Arena, was a constant throughout this All-Around final from the first rotation. There, Biles scored 15.766 points, after a 640º maneuver with a double pike on the vault; Andrade scored 15.100 and Lee 13.933.
The Rio 2016 champion received 13.733 points from the judges on her next exercise, the uneven bars; Lee got 14.866 points and Andrade 14.666. But Biles brought out her best in the third rotation, the horizontal bar, starting with a back flip and saving a triple twist on her hands; she scored 14.566 points.
Lee had scored 14.000 points on the same apparatus and Andrade 14.133. The scoreboard was therefore very close and the fourth rotation, on the floor, would decide the winners of each step of the podium. It was then that Biles shone as she had done eight years ago at the Rio Olympics, when she really made herself known to the world.
In this decisive floor exercise, she performed a triple pirouette on the first diagonal; a forward pirouette, a double tuck and a double somersault to land on her second diagonal; a double plank with a half turn and a forward landing on her third diagonal; and a double plank and a back landing on the fourth diagonal.
A splendid routine earned her 15.066 points, securing first place overall (59.131). Meanwhile, Lee ‘fell’ to bronze with her 13.666 points, for 56.465 in total; she was surpassed by Andrade (14.033), who scored 57.932 in total. Biles thus became the first gymnast to win gold medals in the all-around program at non-consecutive Olympics.
