Biles Reigns Again: Simone Biles Wins Second Olympic All-Around Gold

Simone Biles has once again reached the pinnacle of her sport, securing her sixth career gold medal and her second Olympic all-around title.

Biles scored 59.131 to surpass Brazilian rival Rebeca Andrade, who defended her all-around silver from Tokyo with a score of 57.932. Tokyo Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee claimed the bronze with a score of 56.465, marking the first time two Olympic all-around champions have stood on the same medal podium.

Only two other women in history have won the all-around title twice: Larisa Latynina (1956 and 1960) and Vera Caslavska (1964 and 1968), placing Biles among the sport's greats.

Biles’ victory extends the American women’s all-around gold medal streak to six consecutive Games, a streak that began with Carly Patterson in 2004.

At 27 years old, Biles is also the oldest female gymnast to win the title in 72 years, second only to Maria Gorokhovskaya, who won the title at age 30 during the 1952 Helsinki Games.

"Three years ago, I never thought I'd step foot on a gymnastics floor again because of everything that had happened, but with the help of Cecile and Laurent (Landi), I got back in the gym and worked really hard mentally and physically," Biles said after the competition. "Even at 7 a.m. this morning, I saw my therapist. So just making sure I'm mentally well—I think you can see that out on the competition floor. At the end of the day, it's crazy that I'm in the conversation of greatest of all [time] athletes because I still think I'm Simone Biles from Spring, Texas, who loves to flip."

The world watched in awe as Biles, undeterred by past challenges and setbacks, delivered a performance for the ages in Paris.

Biles’ Performance

Biles began her evening on the vault, executing her signature Yurchenko double pike for an early lead of 0.666 points.

Biles admitted after the competition that she initially wasn't planning to perform the Yurchenko double pike but decided it would help her score and distance herself from Andrade.

"I don't want to compete with Rebeca anymore—I'm tired," Biles joked. "She's way too close. I've never had an athlete that close, so it definitely put me on my toes and brought out the best athlete [in me]. I'm getting uncomfortable, guys! I was stressing."

During the second rotation on the uneven bars, Biles mistimed her Pak Salto, resulting in a significant knee bend and an extra swing to regain her rhythm.

"I'm not sure what the camera caught or what I was doing," Biles said. "I was probably praying to every single God out there; trying to refocus and re-center myself because that's not the bars that I've been training. Out of all the events, I think bars is the one I haven't messed up once the whole entire training here or back in Houston. So just refocusing and making sure that as soon as we go to beam, since I'm first up, I can just re-center myself and finish the rest of the competition because it's not over until it's over."

Although Biles briefly slipped in the standings, she recovered on the balance beam and sealed her victory with a stunning floor routine in the final rotation.

Andrade’s Performance

Andrade, considered Biles’ biggest rival, was riding high after helping Team Brazil win a historic team bronze medal. She started the competition with a stuck Cheng and secured her fourth career Olympic medal.

"I'm just very happy and grateful," Andrade said. "It was a tough competition. It's very difficult to have three days of competition (qualification, team final, and then the individual all-around), but I'm very happy with how I performed."

Lee’s Comeback

Suni Lee's journey back to the all-around medal podium has been a battle. Diagnosed with two types of kidney diseases in early 2023, Lee was once told by a doctor that she would likely never do gymnastics again, making her return to compete in her second Games a remarkable achievement.

Now, she leaves with her fifth Olympic medal.

"It's taken so much," Lee said. "I was telling everyone today I really didn't even think I'd get on the podium, so it's crazy that I was here and I did everything I could. I told myself not to put any pressure on myself because I didn't want to think about the past Olympics or trying to prove anything to anybody, because I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it because I didn't think that I could."