PARIS — Simone Biles walked off the floor with both arms extended over her head extending one finger on each hand toward the crowd.
Again, she is No. 1.
The greatest gymnast in history reclaimed the Olympic title Thursday at Bercy Arena, becoming the first woman to win multiple Olympic all-around gold medals since 1968 and the oldest female Olympic champion, at 27, since 1952.
When Biles landed her final tumbling pass, securing her sixth Olympic gold medal, U.S. teammate Suni Lee jumped in the air and clapped her hands over her head. The returning Olympic all-around champion took bronze, finishing her competition with a clutch floor routine that moved her onto the podium for the first time all night. When Biles’ final score of 59.131 was announced, both Americans climbed onto the floor podium, each holding a corner of the U.S. flag.
Biles and Lee, 21, are two of the stars of the U.S. team that reclaimed the Olympic title on Tuesday, with the quintet nicknaming itself “the Golden Girls,” a nod to the fact that the team was the oldest U.S. women’s gymnastics team since 1952. With 25-year-old Brazilian Rebeca Andrade claiming silver, 1.199 points behind Biles, the all-around podium could adopt a new nickname.
The comeback queens.
After withdrawing from competition citing mental health concerns in Tokyo, Biles returned to become the first female artistic gymnast to win multiple individual Olympic gold medals in nonconsecutive Games. Lee returned to the Olympics after being diagnosed with two kidney diseases. Andrade has fought through three anterior cruciate ligament tears to become the best gymnast in her country’s history.
Andrade, the reigning Olympic vault champion, immediately announced her championship potential by sticking an excellent vault that sent the crowd into a frenzy. She backed it up with a solid bar routine that put her in first place after two rotations when Biles blinked on bars.
Although Biles drilled her difficult Yurchenko double pike vault and scored 0.666 points higher than Andrade on the event, the U.S. star faltered when she was transitioning from the high bar to the low bar and bent her legs while swinging to avoid touching the mat. Andrade jumped ahead by 0.267 points. Biles fell into third behind Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour, who completed the hardest bar routine of the competition and held a 0.067 advantage for second place.
Biles rebounded with a clean beam routine, wobbling slightly on only two skills. When she landed her double-flipping, single-twisting dismount, Biles clapped three times and blew a kiss to the crowd after the routine that would give her a 0.1660-point advantage going into the final rotation. Lee, awaiting her turn on the event, jumped in the air.
Lee entered the final rotation, floor, out of third place by 0.034 points. After Italy’s Alice D’Amato led off the rotation with a clean routine, Lee needed 13.534 to clinch a medal opportunity. She nearly stuck her opening double-flipping, single-twisting laid-out tumbling pass en route to a 13.666 score. When the score flashed across the screen, a baffled smile spread across her face.
It was the first time that two previous Olympic all-around champions faced off again in a women’s all-around final, signaling the graceful aging of the female elite gymnast in recent years.
Starting with Romania’s Nadia Comaneci victory in 1976 at 14 years old, the last 12 Olympic women’s all-around champions have been in their teens, but Thursday night’s podium was filled with 20-somethings. The first gymnast to earn a perfect 10 in the Olympics was in attendance Thursday, speaking to the crowd during a video screen interview. Comaneci was reminded that she has nine Olympic medals. Biles entered the night with eight.
“I think,” Comaneci said with a chuckle, “she’s going to pass me.”
Biles can add to her tally with three more event finals, beginning with Saturday’s vault competition.
