PARIS — It was closer than expected, but the final result was no surprise.

Simone Biles cemented her legacy as the world’s most dominant gymnast Thursday night, narrowly defeating Rebeca Andrade of Brazil in the 2024 Paris Olympics all-around final to become the oldest all-around Olympic champion since 1952. Biles, 27, is also just the third woman in history to win multiple golds in the all-around, and the first to win all-around titles eight years apart. Andrade finished silver and Suni Lee took bronze.

Biles, who hasn’t lost an all-around competition in more than a decade, gave herself a bit of work to do after a major mistake on uneven bars, which left her sitting third at the midway point behind both Andrade and Kaylia Nemour of Algeria. But she responded by hitting a big routine on the sport’s trickiest apparatus, balance beam, and then put the competition to bed with a typically brilliant performance on floor.

“I’m getting uncomfortable guys!” says of how close she was to Andrade. “I was stressing. But I knew if I did my work it’d all be fine.”

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Thursday’s victory gave Biles her second Olympic gold of these Games, after the U.S. women’s squad captured gold in the team final on Tuesday, and her ninth Olympic medal overall, the most ever won by an American gymnast. In the coming days, Biles could add as many as three more golds as she is due to compete in the apparatus finals for balance beam, floor exercise and vault.

Biles, who has also won 30 medals at world championships, has said she is on a bit of a redemption tour in Paris after her experience at the 2021 Tokyo Games. Biles withdrew midway through the team final with a bout of the “twisties,” which caused her to lose a sense of where she was in the air on twisting elements. She proceeded to withdraw from most of her other remaining events and take a two-year hiatus from competitive gymnastics.

Biles has proven to be perhaps even more dominant upon her return last year. She cruised to the all-around world title last fall and has continued to push the boundaries of the sport with new skills, including her now-famous Yurchenko double pike vault – which helped carry her to gold Thursday night.

“It is crazy I am in the conversation of the greatest of all time,” Biles said. “I just think I’m still Simone Biles from Spring, Texas, who loves to flip.”

 

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