Simone Biles reclaims Olympic all-around crown in gymnastics

PARIS — Even before the gold medal was placed around her neck Tuesday night, Simone Biles donned a piece of jewelry that cemented her place in history. It was a GOAT necklace. As in Greatest Of All Time.

Biles reclaimed the Olympic all-around title she first won as a teenager in 2016 with a dramatic victory at Bercy Arena Thursday night, becoming only the third woman in history, the first since 1968, to win two all-around gold medals in their career.

Suni Lee, who won the 2021 Olympic all-around gold medal in Biles’ absence, clinched the bronze medal on the final rotation with a high flying floor routine.

Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade took the silver medal with a 57.932 overall score.

Biles, 27, looked like she had the competition wrapped up after just one rotation, scoring 15.766 on the vault, the night’s highest score in any event.

Biles, however, slipped to third after the second rotation after struggling on the uneven bars. The balance beam, traditionally the sport’s highest risk event, was up next.

But Biles was all smiles and back in first place after nailing her beam routine for a 14.566 score, the highest score on the apparatus Thursday.

Biles, as she was in Tuesday’s team final, competing last seemed to know she had clinched the gold medal when she broke with a wide smile after successfully completing her first tumbling pass on the floor exercise. She was right. Biles was awarded a 15.066 mark for an overall score of 59.131.

She joined Věra Čáslavská of (1964 and 1968) and the Soviet Union’s Larisa Latynina (1956 and 1960) as the only two-time all-around winners.

Biles now has nine Olympic medals, six of them gold, the most by an American gymnast.