Simone Biles Wins Sixth Olympic Gold in All-Around Gymnastics Title

Simone Biles clinched the all-around gymnastics title at the Paris Olympics, securing her second Olympic gold in the event and sixth overall, reinforcing her status as the greatest gymnast of all time. Her victory in Paris marks a remarkable comeback to the top of her sport, following her withdrawal from the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Biles, the 2016 Rio Olympic champion, made history by becoming the oldest gymnast to win the all-around title in 72 years, delighting a celebrity-filled audience at the Bercy Arena. Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade earned the silver medal, while defending champion Sunisa Lee took home the bronze.

Celebrating her victory, Biles donned a sparkly goat necklace, a nod to her recognition as the GOAT (greatest of all time). At 27, she is the first gymnast to win non-consecutive all-around Olympic titles, showcasing her enduring prowess in a sport often dominated by teenagers. In fact, the past 12 Olympic all-around women’s champions were teenagers, and the last non-teenage champion before Biles was 20-year-old Ludmilla Tourischeva in 1972.

Biles’s determination was evident from the start of the competition on Thursday. She began with her signature ‘Biles II’ vault, the most difficult in women’s gymnastics, which provided her with a crucial points buffer despite a rare mistake on the uneven bars. After two rotations, she trailed Andrade but regained the lead with a high-difficulty beam routine, scoring 14.566 and receiving a standing ovation from the crowd.

Heading into the final floor routine with a lead of 0.166 points, Biles delivered an impeccable performance, finishing with a total score of 59.131, comfortably ahead of Andrade by 1.199 points. Andrade and the audience applauded Biles’s remarkable display, celebrating her achievement.

Great Britain’s Alice Kinsella finished 12th, showing significant improvement from her qualifying performance, while fellow Briton Georgia-Mae Fenton placed 18th. Biles, who is focused on her love for the sport rather than her statistics, has now amassed 39 world and Olympic medals, with opportunities to add more in the floor, beam, and vault finals in the coming days.

With her team gold earlier in the week, Biles surpassed Shannon Miller as the most decorated American Olympic gymnast, achieving a total of nine Olympic medals. She also had the chance to set another record by performing a new skill on bars, which, if successful, would make her the only active gymnast to have skills named after her on all four apparatus.