The most prestigious individual title in women’s artistic gymnastics was up for grabs during the all-around final at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Aug. 1. Team USA’s contenders included 2016 Rio champion Simone Biles and reigning champ Sunisa Lee, with Biles considered the likely winner. And win she did, just like the GOAT she is.
The meet started exactly as Biles would have hoped: She landed her historic vault, the Biles II (aka the Yurchenko double pike). As expected, she led following the first rotation, opening a 0.666-point gap over her closest competitor, Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade. However, she dropped behind Andrade as well as Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour after having a mishap on bars in her second rotation. It wasn’t until her strong balance beam performance in the third rotation that she got back on top of the scoreboard, and she didn’t cede her lead in her fourth and final rotation: floor exercise.
Biles ultimately won with 59.131 points, topping a podium that Andrade and Lee rounded out with their impressive showings. Andrade was fairly comfortably in second with a score of 57.932, while Lee needed to do her best floor routine of the Olympics so far to surpass Italy’s Alice D’Amato.
For both Biles and Lee, it was a beautiful comeback. After dominating women’s artistic gymnastics at the 2016 Rio Games, Biles went into the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games as the heavy favorite. All the pressure, plus personal trauma, contributed to her suffering a case of “the twisties” and having to withdraw from multiple event finals. Biles took an extended mental health break from the sport before deciding to give the Paris Olympics a shot. She is now just the third woman ever to win a second Olympic all-around title.
Watching Biles seal her all-around gold on floor, it was hard to believe she’d ever left.
As for Lee, she continued in gymnastics post-Tokyo, competing at Auburn University. In February 2023, though, her body started swelling to the point where she couldn’t train, as she told Sports Illustrated this July. It lasted for weeks, and finally doctors diagnosed her with two kidney diseases. Lee, her coaches, and her doctors didn’t know if she’d ever be able to compete again, so even making the U.S. Olympic team in June was a victory.
“I’ve had to overcome so much the past two years to where I didn’t even think that I would be here,” Lee told E! about being at team trials.
Both women are among the most-decorated Olympic gymnasts in U.S. history. Biles now has eight Olympic medals putting her at the top of the list, while Lee’s five put her behind only Shannon Miller (seven) and Aly Raisman (six). They, along with Andrade, still have more medal opportunities ahead when individual apparatus finals are held on Aug. 3, 4, and 5.
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