Simone Biles Wins Her Second All-Around Olympic Gold

There was not a single easy moment on Simone Biles’ journey to her second Olympic gold medal in the women’s all-around competition.

On Thursday, August 1, on a Parisian night during the women’s all-around final at the Paris 2024 Olympics, the artistic gymnastics star unexpectedly found herself in third place following a challenging performance on the uneven bars earlier in the competition.

The American fought hard not to stop at the lower bar after transitioning from the top to the bottom, bending her knees to avoid hitting the mat and adding an extra element of jumping. Her score was 13.733, which was 0.700 lower than in the qualifying round.

Biles was 0.267 points behind Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, the 2022 World All-Around Champion, and 0.200 points behind Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour after two tests.

But instead of backing down, Biles—just as she has done so many times before—scored 14.566 points on the balance beam, giving her a slight lead of 0.166 before the final floor exercise rotation.

Biles shone once again with a total of 59.131 points in the all-around competition, surpassing Andrade (57.932). The Tokyo 2020 champion Sunisa Lee earned the bronze medal with a total of 56.465.

Earlier, Biles started the competition in the first round with an impressive Yurchenko vault.

The vault, named after Biles after she became the first woman to successfully perform it at the World Championships last year in Antwerp, scored 15.766 points.

Biles won her first Olympic gold medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics, and with this title, she has written a new chapter in the history of artistic gymnastics. No woman has ever won two non-consecutive Olympic all-around titles, while two women (Larisa Latynina 1956–60 and Věra Čáslavská 1964–68) and four men (Alberto Braglia 1908–12; Viktor Chukarin 1952–56; Sawao Kato 1968–72; and Kōhei Uchimura 2012–2016) have claimed two Olympic all-around gold medals.

Biles hasn’t lost in any all-around competition since a friendly match in early 2013 in Germany. Kayla Ross, the 2012 Olympic team champion, won there.