Simone Biles Secures Sixth Olympic Gold with All-Around Gymnastics Victory in Paris

Great Britain’s Alice Kinsella came 12th after a marked improvement on her qualifying performance, and compatriot Georgia-Mae Fenton was 18th.

Biles helped the United States reclaim the team title two days ago, but Thursday evening was about her trying to once again take the prize of world’s best gymnast after the turbulence of Tokyo.

The pressure of expectation she faced going into the Games three years ago, her struggles without her family there because of the pandemic restrictions and her withdrawal from several finals when she suffered the disorientating mental block that gymnasts call the ‘twisties’ are all well-documented.

Biles, who returned to the sport after a two-year break last summer, told reporters she had weekly therapy sessions for the past three years and at other times during these Games.

“It means the world to me,” she said of her victory.

“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.”

But she did not have the easiest ride to gold, saying: “I’ve never been so stressed before – thank you Rebeca.”

She went as far as to say she never wanted to compete against the Brazilian again, although that will be hard in Paris as they have both qualified for the vault, beam and floor finals.

“I’ve never had an athlete that close – it definitely put me on my toes and brought out the best athlete in myself,” she said of Andrade, who was also the silver medallist in Tokyo.

A huge gasp sounded round the arena – where Kendall Jenner and basketball star Stephen Curry were among those attending – when she made a mistake when making a transition to the lower bar, needing to bend both knees to avoid touching the ground, and missed a connection to score 13.733 on uneven bars.

But that is traditionally the ‘weakest’ of her four pieces – and after some quick reassurance from her husband that she could still win she made up ground and stretched ahead with 14.566 on beam and 15.066 on floor.

Biles has said she does not keep count of her statistics; instead saying it is all about going out there and doing what she loves.

It could be said, of course, that with so many records, it actually is genuinely hard to keep track. Although she did correct someone at the news conference who said she had nine Olympic golds rather than nine medals.

This final alone was historic; it was the first time two female Olympic all-around champions had gone head-to-head for a second title, with Biles facing team-mate Lee – the Tokyo 2020 gold medallist.

Biles was already the most decorated gymnast coming into the Paris Games.

Her tally of world and Olympic medals stood at 37 – and she has now taken that to 39, with chances to add to it in the floor, beam and vault finals in the coming days.

With the team gold on Tuesday that took her to eight Olympic medals, she overtook Shannon Miller as the most decorated American Olympic gymnast – and she has now made that nine.

Biles also holds the record for most women’s all-around world titles (six) and most World Championships medals (30).

She had the chance to set another record on Thursday – had she performed a new skill on bars that she had submitted to the International Gymnastics Federation she would have been the only active gymnast to have skills named after her on all four apparatus.

But she did not attempt it – and did not need to since her arsenal of other unique and high-value skills were more than enough to seal the gold.

(BBC Sports)