Happy endings don’t come easy.
Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles proved that Thursday evening (1 August) as she pushed aside an early error to claim her second Olympic all-around crown at Paris 2024.
Biles’ 59.131 total was golden as Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade captured silver in the event, scoring 57.932. American Suni Lee was rounded out the podium (56.465).
All three women have previously graced the Olympic all-around podium, a first.
“For me personally tonight, and it means the world to me and it's just so crazy,” Biles said afterward.
Biles won her first title eight years ago at Rio 2016. Lee and Andrade finished with gold and silver three years ago at Tokyo 2020.
Three years ago at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Biles might have been hoping for her crowning moment. Instead, the superstar was forced out of the women’s team final and four subsequent finals as she prioritised her mental health, dealing with a case of what gymnasts call the ‘twisties,’ where the body and mind fall out of sync.
It sparked a global conversation about mental health in sports.
It pushed her, too, to do the grueling work, physically and mentally, to make it back to the top of the world.
“I never thought I'd step foot on the gymnastics floor again just because of everything that had happened,” explained Biles. “But with the help of [coaches] Cecile and Laurent Landi, I got back in the gym and worked really hard, mentally and physically.
“Even this morning at 7 a.m., I saw my therapist, and there's a time change, so she is so amazing for allowing me to do that these couple of days here in Paris,” she continued, “so just making sure I'm mentally well. I think you see that on the competition floor.”
The world also saw a tight battle.
Despite Biles coming out of the gates with a massive 15.766 score on the vault – her daring Yurchenko double pike, the highest score of the night, she saw her .666 lead evaporate after nearly falling on a flip from the high to low on the uneven bars.
Her 13.733 left her .267 back of Andrade heading to beam.
It’s not a position Biles is used to being in. The last time she trailed in a global all-around final was Rio 2016 where Russia’s Aliya Mustafina topped the scoreboard at the halfway point, having led wire-to-wire at each of the last three world all-around finals.
“I don't want to compete with Rebecca no more. I'm tired, she's way too close,” Biles joked. “I've never had an athlete that close, so it definitely put me on my toes and it brought out the best athlete in myself. I'm excited and proud to compete with her. But, you know, I'm getting uncomfortable, guys. I don't like that feeling, I was stressing.”
“I swear, I’ve never seen you that stressed in my life,” added Lee.
“I knew if I did my work, it would be fine,” Biles continued. “But after bars and then I saw the score come up, I was like, ‘Oh, goodness.’”
Biles reset.
As the other women in her rotation competed their uneven bars exercises, the 27-year-old could be seen in a meditative-like-state on the sidelines.
“I was probably praying to every single god out there, trying to refocus and recenter myself, because that's not the bars that I've been training,” she said of the moments after the error. “Just refocusing and making sure that as soon as we go to beam, since I'm first up, I can just recenter myself and finish the rest of the competition because it's not over till it's over.”
The calm, precise manner in which Biles executed her balance beam routine was a testament to the work she’s done to get here.
It earned her a 14.566 and a slim .166 margin heading to the final event, her best, the floor exercise.
She dazzled there, her 15.066 leaving no doubt that she was golden again.
Happy ending achieved.
Before Biles no woman had ever won two non-consecutive Olympic all-around titles.
Two women (Larisa Latynina 1956-60 and Vera Čáslavská1964-68) and four men (Alberto Braglia 1908-12; Viktor Chukarin 1952-56; Kato Sawao 1968-72; and Uchimura Kohei 2012-2016) own two Olympic all-around gold medals.
At 27, she is the oldest woman to take the all-around crown in 72 years since Maria Gorokhovskaya, then 30, was golden in event’s inaugural staging at Helsinki 1952.
Though she cannot catch Latynina’s overall record haul of 18, she could tie the Soviet great’s gold medal total – nine – if she runs the table with wins in Saturday’s (3 August) vault final and Monday’s (5 August) beam and floor finals.
Biles has not lost an all-around competition since a friendly competition in early 2013 in Germany. 2012 Olympic team champion Kyla Ross was the champion there.
