Simone Biles wins second Olympic women’s all-around title; Rebeca Andrade, Sunisa Lee repeat as medalists
PARIS – The Greatest of All Time is the Olympic women’s all-around champion once again.
Simone Biles won her second Olympic title in the women’s all-around on Thursday inside Bercy Arena, scoring a 59.131. The win comes three years after she had to withdraw from the Tokyo all-around final due to the twisties. Biles won the 2016 Olympic all-around title, and with her win, becomes the first gymnast since Vera Caslavska (’64, ’68) to win two Olympic all-around titles – she’s only the third gymnast to ever achieve the feat. Biles is the first woman to win non-consecutive Olympic all-around titles. This is her ninth Olympic medal, making her the most decorated American gymnast in Olympic history.
Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade repeated as silver medalist with a 57.932, and Sunisa Lee (USA) won the bronze (56.465).
Biles started her night on vault throwing the Yurchenko double pike, aka the Biles II, and scoring a 15.766. The choice to throw the Biles II instead of the Cheng ended up giving her room to breathe against Andrade, her most formidable opponent in a decade. In the next rotation on bars, she made a major error on her Pak salto (13.733), losing approximately seven-tenths on her average so far in Paris.
After the mistake on bars, she trailed Andrade by a little less than three-tenths. Despite having the upper hand on beam and floor, Biles was seen seemingly meditating and later admitted she was stressed.
“I was probably praying to every single god out there trying to refocus and recenter myself because that’s not the bars that I had been training.” She added shortly after, “I’m not the best bars swinger like Suni or Kaylia, but I can swing some bars!”
On beam, Biles got back on track, scoring a 14.566 and regaining the lead. She closed things out as the final competitor of the meet on floor, scoring a 15.066 – her highest floor score in Paris so far – and blowing the crowd her signature kiss, which was noticeably bigger than usual.
After the meet, she gave Andrade her flowers by calling her a “phenomenal” athlete and saying she had to bring out the “big guns” with the Yurchenko double pike.
“I don’t want to compete with Rebeca no more,” Biles said with endearment. “I’m tired. She’s way too close. 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. So I’m excited and proud to compete with her but… uh-uh, I don’t like it no more…. I’m getting uncomfortable guys. I don’t like that feeling – I was STRESSING.”
There have been indications that Biles is retiring after Paris, but another one came Thursday inside the press conference room of Bercy, when she seemed to pass the torch to Andrade.
“I’ve never been so STRESSED before – thank you, Rebeca – but it’s good,” Biles said. “I’m gonna hand it to her now; she can have the rest.”
But it seems Andrade may have also just competed her last all-around meet.
“I think the all-around individual requires a lot from us – from my legs, my knees, the rest of my whole body, but the future belongs to God,” Andrade said through a translator. “It depends on how I feel in the future, how my body feels, how I feel mentally. I’ve worked a lot on the mental side of things. I wanted today to be a special competition, and it was. I think this will be my goodbye to the individual all-around.”
It makes sense that the 25-year-old would want to give her body a rest, especially after suffering three ACL tears in her career. Andrade is already one of the all-time greats and has made history for Brazil time and time again, leading the country to its first Olympic team medal in gymnastics with the bronze earlier this week.
As for Lee, it’s impossible to not be in awe of what the 2020 Olympic champion has gone through in the past three years to return to the podium. After being diagnosed with, battling, and going into remission from two types of kidney disease in the past year, Lee worked her way back to competing all four events. She only added floor back less than three months ago.
“Literally, six months ago I didn’t even consider I would be here competing today,” Lee said. “That was an achievement in itself. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to be on the podium. To just be here has been absolutely amazing. And I don’t know if you guys could tell, but I definitely got a little emotional after my floor routine. Just seeing the score come up was just insane.”
Rounding out the top 10 were Alice D’Amato (ITA), Kaylia Nemour (ALG), Ellie Black (CAN), Qiu Qiyuan (CHN), Helen Kevric (GER), Flavia Saraiva (BRA), and Naomi Visser (NED).
Click here to jump to the start of the meet.
Thu. August 1 @ 8:36 p.m.
FINAL from Bercy!
Thu. August 1 @ 8:27 p.m.
Simone Biles (USA) FX: Can she become Olympic champion once again? Triple-double, single step back, HUGE as always. Punch front full through to tucked double-double, small hop. Double wolf turn, clean. Double layout half, no stag, seems to keep it in bounds. Double layout, small hop. The BIGGEST KISS to the crowd. OLYMPIC CHAMPION ONCE AGAIN! 15.066!
Thu. August 1 @ 8:22 p.m.
Rebeca Andrade (BRA) FX: Punch front full through to full-twisting double back, large step out of bounds. Full-twisting double layout, stutter step back. Double Y-turn to stag. Double layout, nearly stuck, smallest of hops forward. Double pike, large hop and a step back, but keeps it in bounds. 14.033 – into first!
Thu. August 1 @ 8:20 p.m.
Sunisa Lee will need the floor of her life to surpass Alice, who’s in bronze medal position at this point… The reigning Olympic floor champion! Believe she needs a 13.535 or better? STUCK full-twisting double layout. 1.5 to front full, small hop forward. Double L-turn to full turn. Triple wolf turn. At the end of this, no matter what happens, Suni has overcome so much. Double back, bit under-rotated, hop forward, and I think that’s the LOUDEST this arena has gotten all night. IT’S A 13.666 – SUNI IS GOING TO BE ON THE PODIUM!!
Thu. August 1 @ 8:11 p.m.
Kaylia Nemour (ALG) FX: Double layout, low chest but basically stuck. 1.5 through to triple twist, step to the side, and seemed to be rightttt on the line. Maybe -0.1. Double wolf turn. Laid-out Arabian through to double pike, step forward. 13.100 – into 2nd.
Thu. August 1 @ 8:05 p.m.
Manila Esposito (ITA) FX: Triple wolf turn. Double layout, too short, falls to her knees. Just not Manila’s day unfortunately. 12.733.
Alice D’Amato (ITA) FX = 13.500
Thu. August 1 @ 7:55 p.m.
With one to go, Simone Biles is in the lead by 0.166! Rebeca Andrade in second. Alice D’Amato third. Kaylia Nemour and Sunisa Lee TIED!
Thu. August 1 @ 7:47 p.m.
Rebeca Andrade (BRA) BB: Switch leap mount. Switch leap to switch half to split jump, excellent. Back handspring to layout, big leg up check. Front aerial to ring jump to back handspring, solid. Switch ring, step back. Side aerial, good. Full turn. You can hear Simone say, “You got it!” Double pike, hop forward. 14.133 – into second.
Thu. August 1 @ 7:43 p.m.
Sunisa Lee (USA) BB: Straddle mount. Triple wolf turn, clean. Front aerial, leg up, misses the connection to the jump to back handspring. Switch leap to switch half to ring jump, clean. Side aerial to layout stepout to layout stepout, hits it. Switch ring, small bobble. Pike gainer full, bittt short, has to take a step forward. 14.000.
Thu. August 1 @ 7:39 p.m.
Flavia Saraiva (BRA) FX: Stuck double layout, everyone immediately into it! Double back, big rebound, slips and falls to her chest – devastating.
Thu. August 1 @ 7:38 p.m.
Kaylia Nemour (ALG) BB: Roundoff layout mount to layout. Back handspring to two-footed layout, almost comes off, but fightsssss. Double wolf turn, excellent. Side aerial. Switch leap to switch half, bit low. Front aerial, probably won’t get connection for the split jump to back swing down. Double pike, single step. 13.033 – inquiry submitted, accepted – 13.233!
Manila Esposito (ITA) = 14.200
Thu. August 1 @ 7:27 p.m.
Simone Biles (USA) BB: Switch leap mount. Switch leap to switch half to back pike, perfect. Triple wolf turn, always seems a bit tedious. Front aerial to split jump to straddle jump. Back handspring to layout stepout to layout stepout, perfect. Side aerial, bit of an arm swing. Full-twisting double back, small hop back. Back on track! Gives Cecile a big hug, and then goes over to Laurent who isn’t “on the floor” but behind the ropes and gives him a hug too. 14.566 – about what she’s been scoring here.
Thu. August 1 @ 7:19 p.m.
Halfway through!
Thu. August 1 @ 7:15 p.m.
Score update:
- Alice D’Amato (ITA) UB = 14.800
- Qiu Qiyuan (CHN) BB = 14.500
- Ou Yushan (CHN) BB = 14.033
- Flavia Saraiva (BRA) BB = 14.266 – inquiry submitted, unchanged
- Ana Barbosu (ROU) FX = 13.566
- Naomi Visser (NED) FX = 13.400
Thu. August 1 @ 7:12 p.m.
Sunisa Lee (USA) UB: Toe-on laid-out Tkatchev (Nabieva) to Bhardwaj. Van Leeuwen. Short on the next handstand. Blind change to straddle Jaeger to Pak to Maloney to Gienger. Giant 1/1. Tucked full-twisting double back, nearly stuck, quick step out and salute. 14.866.
Thu. August 1 @ 7:06 p.m.
Kaylia Nemour (ALG) UB: Almost goes over on a handstand partway through but fights for it, quickly gets the swing back, and besides that, the set is exceptional as always. She has been so consistent! 15.533 – jumps ahead of Biles!
Thu. August 1 @ 7:01 p.m.
Manila Esposito (ITA) off on bars.
Thu. August 1 @ 7:01 p.m.
Andrade now ahead of Biles by 0.267. Biles lost approximately 7 to 8 tenths with that mistake. She still has the upperhand on beam and floor, but she can’t afford anymore major mistakes.
Thu. August 1 @ 6:59 p.m.
Simone Biles (USA) UB: Weiler half to Maloney to giant 1/1 to piked Tkatchev to Pak, and the catch is weird, she bends her legs and loses the swing, don’t know if she brushed the mat – it doesn’t seem like she did? Re-kips and finishes her normal set. Toe 1/1 to stuck tucked double-double. 13.733 – compared to 14.433 and 14.400 earlier this week. Could’ve been a lot worse. Seems she new things were off and kept her legs bent to avoid brushing the mat.
Thu. August 1 @ 6:53 p.m.
Rebeca Andrade (BRA) UB: Maloney to stalder 1/1 to piked Tkatchev to Pak to Van Leeuwen. Blind change to piked Jaeger. Toe 1/1 to full-twisting double back, small hop. No double-double today, but she does connect the Pak to Van Leeuwen and overall a stunning set from Rebe! 14.666!
Thu. August 1 @ 6:51 p.m.
Ellie Black (CAN) off on beam.
Thu. August 1 @ 6:48 p.m.
After Rotation 1!
Thu. August 1 @ 6:45 p.m.
Flavia Saraiva (BRA) UB: Flavia the warrior still has her eyebrow bandaged after busting it open in the touch on bars during the team final. Toe 1/1 to piked Tkatchev to Pak. Toe-on. Maloney to Gienger. Blind change. Double front, small hop back. 13.900.
Thu. August 1 @ 6:40 p.m.
Some other scores:
- Ellie Black (CAN) UB = 14.066
- Haruka Nakamura (JPN) BB = 13.700
- Helen Kevric (GER) BB = 13.400
Thu. August 1 @ 6:35 p.m.
Kaylia Nemour (ALG) VT: A podium contender no doubt! And it all begins with this vault – excellent double-twisting Yurchenko through the air, step back. 14.033.
Thu. August 1 @ 6:34 p.m.
Manila Esposito (ITA) VT: Double-twisting Yurchenko, great landing, small hop forward. 13.866.
Luisa Blanco (COL) FX: This is most likely Luisa’s final meet ever – she slid into this final but indicated after qualifying that that would probably be it before she ended up qualifying. Double back small hop back. Rudi to stag. Double pike. 12.700.
Thu. August 1 @ 6:33 p.m.
Alice D’Amato (ITA) VT: Beautiful double-twisting Yurchenko, stunning! 14.000.
Qiu Qiyuan (CHN) off on bars.
Thu. August 1 @ 6:29 p.m.
Simone Biles (USA) VT: Yurchenko double pike, big through the air, large sliding step back. That vault vs. the Cheng gives her a littleee more breathing room. 15.766 – 9.366 E-score!
Thu. August 1 @ 6:28 p.m.
Rebeca Andrade (BRA) VT: STUCK Cheng. She takes a quick single step when she salutes, but she hung on for that. 15.100 – 9.5 E-score!
Thu. August 1 @ 6:23 p.m.
Suni Lee (USA) VT: Double-twisting Yurchenko, off to the side a bit, on the line, hop back. 13.933.
Fall from Ana Barbosu on beam.
Thu. August 1 @ 6:21 p.m.
Simone warmed up the YDP! She’s going BIG! Kept it on her feet. Couple steps back.
Thu. August 1 @ 6:17 p.m.
Rotation 1 touch starting now. Suni will be up first on vault, followed by Rebeca, then Simone.
Thu. August 1 @ 6:12 p.m.
Intros happening now!
Thu. August 1 @ 5:56 p.m.
Nadia Comaneci is in the house, getting interviewed for the crowd. She’s talking about how happy she is to see women’s sports booming and that this games is 50/50. Plus, she had a message for the crowd in French!
Thu. August 1 @ 4:54 p.m.
Tonight, the obvious favorite for the title is Simone Biles – the 2016 Olympic champion and reigning world champion. Much has been made about Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, Biles’ most formidable opponent. The duo most recently faced off as individuals at 2023 worlds, where Biles bested Andrade by 1.633 points in the all-around – a significant margin, to be clear. In event finals, Biles beat Andrade on beam and floor, but Andrade was able to surpass Biles on vault after she fell on her Yurchenko double pike.
In Paris so far, Biles and Andrade have both competed the all-around during qualifying and the team final. In qualifying, Biles bested Andrade by 1.866 points, with the Yurchenko double pike as her vault. In the team final, Biles opted to do the Cheng instead of the YDP for safety reasons concerning the calf injury that flared up during qualifying. She went on to score 0.366 higher than Andrade across all four.
In both meets so far, Andrade hasn’t opted to throw the upgrades that she showed in podium training across all four events (except the triple-twisting Yurchenko, which we haven’t seen yet, but she submitted). The team final was the closest Andrade has gotten to Biles, with Andrade having one of the best meets of her career to lead Brazil to a historic bronze.
Biles is still the favorite tonight – YDP or not – but various factors will determine how close this meet will be. Will Biles opt for the YDP? She doesn’t need to, but it will give her some breathing room right out of the gate. Will Andrade throw some or all of her upgrades? She’ll need to if she really wants to challenge Biles, or else she’ll have to repeat her team final performance and Biles will have to make major mistakes.
Beyond the friendly rivalry between Biles and Andrade, which, we can’t reiterate enough, is friendly – the two women have shown time and time again they respect each other and have a good friendship – 2020 Olympic all-around champion Sunisa Lee qualified third and is looking to make an inspiring return to the podium. She’s fully capable of bronze, or even silver depending on how the night goes (she’d need help from Andrade). It would be another triumph for the now four-time Olympic medalist, who was diagnosed with two types of kidney disease last year, and has worked diligently to take care of her body, enter remission, and return to her 2021 form, if not better.
Lee’s toughest competition for the bronze is Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour, who qualified less than two-tenths back and brought an upgraded double-twisting Yurchenko to Paris. Nemour’s story is unique in the fact that she was born in France and represented the nation until 2021, when she underwent two surgeries after developing osteochondritis. Nemour was cleared by her personal doctor to return to competition in 2022, her first year as a senior, but the French national team doctor wouldn’t clear her. The French Gymnastics Federation also wanted her to leave her club and move to Paris to train, which Nemour didn’t want to do, so she opted to change her nationality to Algeria, where her father is from. The nationality change was approved by July of 2022, but the French federation refused to accept the change, which would mean she wouldn’t be eligible until a year later, in July 2023. Nemour wanted to compete at the African championships in May to qualify to Worlds to then be able to qualify to the Olympics. After 10 months of the French federation refusing to release Nemour, a report came out documenting abuse within the French federation, which led to the federation releasing Nemour just two weeks before the African championships. She would go on to win the African all-around title. Nemour booked her ticket to Paris based on her all-around performance at 2023 Worlds in Antwerp, Belgium. She also won the silver medal on uneven bars there. In Paris, Nemour is the favorite for the bars title after qualifying over China’s Qiu Qiyuan, the reigning world champion, by more than half a point.
Thu. August 1 @ 2:32 p.m.
The top group tonight consists of Simone Biles (USA), Rebeca Andrade (BRA), Sunisa Lee (USA), Kaylia Nemour (ALG), Alice D’Amato (ITA), and Manila Esposito (ITA).
Thu. August 1 @ 2:30 p.m.
We’re live inside Bercy Arena for the women’s all-around final at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games! Competition begins at 6:15 p.m. CEST/12:15 p.m. EDT. See the top of the page for key links, live scoring, and more.
