Biles’ win makes her the first American gymnast to win gold twice in the all-around final. At this point, setting records is what Biles does best. With her gold medal finish in the all-around final, she becomes the first American gymnast to ever win the event twice.
With yet another brilliant piece of history, Simone Biles cemented her place again at the forefront of her sport by winning the gymnastics all-around title, her second consecutive Olympic gold in Paris, and sixth overall.
In front of yet another star-studded audience, the American, who had won the championship in Rio 2016 and was the clear favourite in Tokyo 2020 until she withdrew, became the oldest champion of her sporting affairs blue-riband tournament in 72 years.
In the Bercy Arena, Sunisa Lee, the reigning champion, took home bronze, followed by Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade in silver.
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As if there had been any question about her standing as the best gymnast of all time, Biles, the most decorated person in the world, accessorized her celebration with a glittering goat necklace.
“A lot of folks adore this short ode. It would be truly wonderful for me to have one manufactured because I’m constantly being called the greatest of all time,” the woman stated.
“I like that much more than I like the people who dislike it. This is just a unique aspect of who I am. “I have a plush goat in the village where the athletes live.” Just a friendly reminder that you can do the task at hand. It is nothing new for you. So, let’s head out.”
As the only gymnast to win two non-consecutive all-around Olympic titles, Biles, 27, is proof of her tenacity in a demanding sport that is often dominated by teens.
Twelve of the previous fourteen Olympic women’s all-around champions were teens; Ludmilla Tourischeva, the final non-teen winner, turned twenty just weeks prior to her 1972 victory.
How Biles achieved her most recent gold
Biles made it apparent early on in the Thursday session what she wanted. Commencing using the ‘Biles II’ vault, the most difficult in women’s gymnastics, turned out to be a wise move as she required an additional margin of error to offset an unexpected error on the uneven bars.
“Thank God we did the double pike today [on vault] as I wasn’t planning on it,” she stated. After two rotations, she trailed Andrade, but she executed a challenging beam performance, defying attraction to stay on the apparatus that was 10 cm wide, earning a score of 14.566 and raising the audience by two feet as she returned to the top of the rankings.
Biles, who performed last on the floor, had an advantage of 0.166 going into the last rotation. She displayed a few of her best abilities flawlessly, finishing with a score of 59.131.
This meant that she finished 1.199 points ahead of Andrade, who, like everyone else in the crowded arena, could only cheer and take pleasure in what her competitor had accomplished. After a significant improvement from her qualifying effort, Georgia-Mae Fenton, a fellow Briton, placed 18th, and Alice Kinsella of Great Britain came in at number twelve.
A golden opportunity for her, yet it was “stressful”
Two days prior, Biles had assisted the United States in regaining the team title, but Thursday night was focused on her attempting to recapture the title of world’s greatest gymnast following the unrest in Tokyo.
Her experiences competing at the Games three years prior, struggling to attend without her family because to pandemic restrictions, and withdrawing from multiple finals due to a disorienting mental block known to gymnasts as the “twisties” are all well-documented.
After taking a two-year hiatus from the sport, Biles told reporters this summer that she had been attending weekly treatment sessions for the previous three years, in addition to occasionally attending these Games.
Regarding her win, she remarked, “It means the entire globe to me.” “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.” She did not, however, have an easy journey to the top; she said, “Thank you Rebeca, I’ve never felt so anxious before.”
Even though it will be difficult given that they have both advanced for the vault, beam, and floor finals in Paris, she went so far as to claim she never was interested in competing against the Brazilian again.
She spoke highly of Andrade, who also won a silver medal in Tokyo, saying, “I’ve never seen a competitor so close to me – it certainly put myself on my toes while bringing out the best sportsmen in myself.”
A tremendous sigh went up throughout the arena, which was attended by basketball player Stephen Curry and Kendall Jenner, when she erred in her move to the lower bar. She had to bend both of her knees to avoid hitting the floor, and she missed a connection, scoring 13.733 on inconsistent bars.
However, that is also the ‘weakest’ among her four pieces. She gained ground and advanced with 14.566 on the beam as well as 15.066 on the floor after receiving prompt confirmation from her loving husband that she might still win.
The figures demonstrating Biles’ intelligence
Speaking candidly, Biles has stated that she does not track her metrics, preferring to focus on pursuing her passions.
Of course, one may argue that it is genuinely difficult to keep track of everything with so many records. She did, however, correct a reporter at the press conference who misrepresented her medal count as nine Olympic golds.
Just the final match alone was historic: Biles faced her teammate Lee, the gold medalist from Tokyo 2020, in what was the first-ever matchup between two female Olympic everywhere winners for a second title. Before the Paris Games, Biles was the most decorated gymnast.
She started off with 37 world and Olympic medals, and now she has 39. She has the opportunity to add more in the floor, beam, and vault finals in the next few days.
She passed Shannon Miller to become the most accomplished American Olympic gymnast with her team’s victory on Tuesday, bringing her total to eight Olympic medals. She now has nine.
Together with her six global titles in the all-around, Biles also owns the record for the most medals (30) won in the global Championships.
On Thursday, she had the opportunity to break still another record: if she had executed a new bar talent that she had registered with the International Gymnastics Federation, she would have been the only gymnast currently competing with skills named after her on all four equipment.
However, she refrained from attempting it, since her collection of other exceptional and valuable abilities was sufficient to secure the money.
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