The 27-year-old reigning world champion Simone Biles of the United States reclaimed the women's all-round Olympic gold at Paris 2024.
PARIS, August 1 (Xinhua) -- Simone Biles of the United States claimed her second Olympic women's all-around title after winning Thursday's final at the Paris Olympics.
The 27-year-old reigning world champion, who won the event at Rio 2016, pulled out of the event in Tokyo in 2021.
Biles collected 59.131 points across four apparatuses to finish ahead of Tokyo 2020 silver medalist Rebeca Andrade, who earned Brazil a silver on 57.932 following a bronze medal from the women's team event.
"I just couldn't believe that I did it," said Biles. "I know that I did it, but I don't think it's hit me just yet. It will probably hit me whenever I go back to the Village."
Defending champion Sunisa Lee, also from the U.S., edged Italy's Alice D'Amato to take the bronze with 56.465.
Biles' all-around victory is also the sixth straight win of the U.S. in the event since the Athens Olympics in 2004, a testament to the country's dominance in women's gymnastics.
With the women's team title on Tuesday, Biles has now gathered two gold medals in Paris for nine Olympic medals overall.
Biles, the last on the floor, brought the crowd to their feet with one of the finest routine of the night. When the results came out, the newly-crowned champion leaned on the elevated competition floor, taking some time to allow things sink in.
Moments later, she grabbed an American flag, jumped up and down with Lee and began the celebration.
It hasn't been easy. She talked to her therapist at seven Thursday morning to make sure she was prepared. This has become her routine whenever she competes.
And there was also Andrade, a such consistent gymnast that threatened to take the leading place at the slightest chances.
So Biles had to go big. She started with a Yurchenko double pike on vault, combining immense difficulty with excellent execution to score a massive 15.766 points, bettering Andrade's Cheng, a lower difficulty routine.
She was shaky on uneven bars, allowing Andrade to take over, but made up for it with a clean balance beam performance and a brilliant floor exercise.
"I think Rebeca (Andrade) pushes me to be my best as well. She's a phenomenal athlete and gymnast. So I'm excited that she was there to push me," Biles said.
China's Qin Qiyuan fell on her strongest event, the uneven bars, but had a good showing on the balance beam to place seventh. She finished fourth at last year's world championships.
Kaylia Nemour of Nigeria used a 7.2 difficulty routine on uneven bars to climb to the second place after rotation 2, but faltered on the balance beam to finish fifth. ■
