Olympic gymnastics highlights: Simone Biles wins all-around gold, Sunisa Lee takes bronze

Biles had not planned to perform her signature Yurchenko double pike vault in the all-around finals. In the end, she was glad she did.

As early as the first rotation, Biles was worried about being caught by Andrade.

“I was like, ‘I think I have to bring up the big guns this time,’” she said.

She is the only woman to perform the extremely difficult vault, also known as Biles II. It earned her a massive 15.766 and made up for her mistake on bars during the second rotation.

“After the bars, when I saw the score come up I was like, ‘Thank God we did the double pike today,’ because I was not planning on it,” she said.

▶ See the full list of medal winners and the breakdown of winners by country

Simone Biles, asked about the eight-year gap between her all-around gold medals:

“It feels amazing. I was a little bit naive in the process. So I appreciate my craft a little bit more.”

Rebeca Andrade won’t be remembered as the woman who beat Simone Biles in her prime.

Silver — again — hardly seemed like a disappointment to her.

“I’ve worked so hard to achieve this,” Andrade said. “It’s just unbelievable. I had so much fun, every single moment has been sensational.”

▶ Read more about Andrade’s second straight silver medal

Biles still has a shot at three more medals in the individual events: vault, beam and floor.

Here’s the rest of the gymnastics schedule:

Saturday, Aug. 3:

• 9:30 a.m. EDT / 1:30 p.m. CEST — Men’s floor exercise final
• 10:20 a.m. EDT / 2:20 p.m. CEST — Women’s vault final
• 11:16 a.m. EDT / 2:16 p.m. CEST — Men’s Pommel Horse final

Sunday, Aug. 4:

• 9 a.m. EDT / 3 p.m. CEST — Men’s Rings Final
• 9:45 a.m. EDT / 3:45 p.m. CEST — Women’s Uneven Bars Final
• 10:24 a.m. EDT / 4:24 p.m. CEST — Men’s Vault Final

Monday, Aug. 5:

• 5:45 a.m. EDT /11:45 a.m. CEST — Men’s Parallel Bars Final
• 6:36 a.m. EDT / 12:38 p.m. CEST — Women’s Balance Beam Final
• 7:33 a.m. EDT / 1:33 p.m. CEST — Men’s Horizontal Bar Final
• 8:23 a.m. EDT / 2:23 p.m. CEST Women’s Floor Exercise Final

▶ See the full Olympics event schedule

“I’ve watched it on TV but never been in the arena before,” Curry told The Associated Press after a quick FaceTime call with his wife Ayesha as the celebration for Biles was starting. “To see that athleticism, the clutchness of Simone and Suni in that moment, knowing what they had to do and going out and doing it was absolutely incredible. They are ridiculous to watch. To see that athleticism, it’s insane.”

Simone Biles had the GOAT necklace ready, just in case the women’s all-around competition went well Thursday night.

Spoiler alert: It did.

And when she showed the pendant of a goat, a nod to the Greatest Of All Time acronym, Biles knew exactly what the reaction would be.

“My GOAT necklace is just kind of an ode, because the people love it and some people hate it,” she said. “So, it’s like the best of both worlds. I was like, ‘OK, if it goes well, we’ll wear the GOAT necklace.’ I know people will go crazy over it but at the end of the day it is crazy that I am in the conversation of ‘Greatest of all athletes’ because I just still think, ‘I’m Simone Biles from Spring, Texas who loves to flip.’”

Biles says she’s had enough of trying to hold off Rebeca Andrade.

“I don’t want to compete with Rebeca no more. I’m tired. Like, she’s way too close. I’ve never had an athlete that close.”

After her mistake during her bars routine, Biles said she “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: “I’m not the best bar swinger like Suni or Kaylia, but I can still swing some bars.” Biles also said she saw her mental threrapist at 7 a.m. this morning as she got ready for her final.

Sunisa Lee is the first to follow a gold in the women’s gymnastics all-around in one Games with a medal in the same event at the following Olympics since Nadia Comaneci in 1976 and ’80.

Moments after winning her second Olympic women’s all-around gold medal, Simone Biles went over and yelled toward a group of her newest fans.

“Good luck!” she yelled, as she waved from the floor of the arena to where Kevin Durant and others from the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team was sitting.

And that squad was blown away.

“America!” U.S. guard Stephen Curry yelled, and fellow guard Devin Booker said seeing Biles up close was “one of the coolest things ever.”

Just pure joy for Biles. No cries. A big, big smile when she received her gold medal. She looked serious, with a hand on her heart, when the American anthem reverberated in the venue. And big smiles again, including while posing for a podium selfie with Lee and Andrade.

Simone Biles remains peerless. Even when she’s not quite perfect.

The American gymnastics star edged Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade during a tense Olympic all-around final on Thursday. Biles’ total of 59.131 was just over a point ahead of Andrade at 57.932, one of the closest calls Biles has ever endured at a major international event.

Sunisa Lee, the Tokyo Olympics champion, earned bronze despite spending much of the last 15 months dealing with multiple kidney diseases that left her return to the Games very much in doubt.

Still, the meet ended the way all the ones Biles has started and finished over the last 11 years have ended: with hugs and gold on the way.

▶ Read more about Biles’ latest gold medal

IOC President Thomas Bach is here to hand-deliver Simone Biles’ latest gold medal himself.

Final scores from the women’s all-around:

Simone Biles, USA - 59.131
Rebeca Andrade, Brazil - 57.932
Sunisa Lee, USA - 56.465

Biles is wearing a silver goat necklace, holding it up for cameras to see.

American fans are on the verge of apoplexy.

Bercy Arena exploded into cheers and applause when the results of the all-around flashed on the big screens, with Biles’s name at the top.

As Biles rushed to the center of the mat with Sunisa Lee to celebrate with an American flag, phones are all out — including Kevin Durant and several of his Team USA teammates — nobody wants to miss a single moment of that historic scene.

Some numbers on Simone Biles’ Olympic dominance ...

• 6: Her new total of Olympic golds, third-most in women’s gymnastics history. Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union won nine and Czechoslovakia’s Vera Caslavska won seven.
• 9: Her new total of Olympic medals, the seventh woman with at least that many.
• 34: The number of consecutive all-around competitions at the national and international level she has won, a streak that goes back to 2013.
• $75,000: The number of dollars in bonus money she’s won from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee so far in these Paris Games. The Americans pay $37,500 for gold medals.

The U.S. was the first nation to win five straight women’s all-around Olympic gold medals when Sunisa Lee prevailed at the Tokyo Games three years ago.

Make it six.

Simone Biles is now the third woman to win two Olympic all-around titles. Lee won in Tokyo, Biles at Rio de Janeiro in 2016, Gabby Douglas at London in 2012, Nastia Liukin at Beijing in 2008 and Carly Patterson at Athens in 2004.

The earliest another nation could pass the U.S. for this run of consecutive all-around dominance: 2052, and that’s if one country wins the next seven Olympic titles in that event.

Here we go. Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade finished the all-around competition with a score of 57.932.

That means Simone Biles, the final competitor, needs a 13.867 on the floor for gold.

In a couple minutes, we’ll know the final answer.

Another all-around medal for Sunisa Lee? Sure looks like it.

She’s the leader with two gymnasts left — Rebeca Andrade and Simone Biles — in the final rotation of floor exercise.

So, barring something wild, the gold medalist for the U.S. from the all-around at the Tokyo Games is going to get at least a bronze at the Paris Games.

Kaylia Nemour could win a medal in Paris. It might’ve been for France, but she’s competing for Algeria instead.

The situation is due to a dispute between the French gymnastics federation and Nemour’s club of Avoine Beaumont, which has led the gymnast to embrace her father’s Algerian nationality.

The conflict between Nemour — who holds dual citizenship — and the French federation started after Nemour suffered from a bone and cartilage condition and had to undergo surgery on both knees in 2021. The federation thought her problems were the result of overtraining during a time her body was growing up and decided to postpone the moment she would return to competition, despite her surgeon giving a go-ahead.

The dispute was settled after the French minister for Sport intervened following an initial refusal from the federation to release the gymnast that could have jeopardized her presence in Paris.

▶ Read more about Nemour’s unique journey

Looks like Biles wanted to set the record straight with her impressive beam routine.

A couple of balance checks aside, it was marvelous and she finished it off with a great dismount. The reward? She is back into the lead with just one rotation left, on the floor exercise for her.

And she excels on that apparatus. Andrade has slipped back to second place, but the margin separating her from Biles is ridiculously small: 0.166 point. Alice D’Amato of Italy is a distant third.

Biles’ seven gold medals in Olympic and world championship all-around competitions have come by an average margin of victory of 1.446 points.

(That’s a lot in gymnastics.)

Her lead over Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade going into the fourth and final rotation of all-around at the Paris Games on Thursday night: 0.166 points.

To the floor we go, to decide gold.

Lee, the reigning Olympic champion, remains in the mix for a podium finish after her beam routine. She is only 1.266 points behind Biles before the final rotation on floor exercise.

The cancan has been a huge part of French culture and theater. It made it to the Paris Games as well, thanks to Brazilan gymnast Flavia Saraiva.

She used that as her accompanying music for the floor exercise at the women’s all-around competition on Thursday night.

The cancan’s popularity goes back to the early 19th century, and rose to iconic status in postwar Paris.

A couple of tiny slip-ups didn’t seem to hurt Simone Biles on the beam as she tries to close in on Andrade.

Biles’ score: 14.566. She entered the third rotation about a quarter-point behind Andrade.

Translation: it’s likely going to be very close going into the floor exercise, which will decide gold.

Andrade is in the lead midway through the all-around final.

Andrade’s uneven bars routine was a model of fluidity while Biles botched a transition that dropped her to third overall, 0.267 points behind Andrade.

Algerian specialist Kaylia Nemour, as expected, posted the best score on bars, a massive 15.533 that pushed her past Biles for all-around. She trails Andrade by just 0.200 points, but she’s unlikely to keep pace on the remaining apparatuses.

Simone Biles has a fight on her hands for the Olympic all-around title.

Biles trails Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade by 0.267 through two rotations. The duo next heads to the balance beam, where Biles was second during qualifying and Andrade third.

Biles will be the first gymnast up during the rotation, with Andrade going last.

The two will finish the night on floor exercise, where the difficulty of Biles’ routine gives her a significant advantage. If Biles can stay on the beam, she would be well positioned to pass Andrade after floor.

Biles has made her first big mistake of the Olympics.

She botched a transition from the upper bar to the lower bar, a miscue that messed with her momentum and forced her to muscle her way back into her routine.

Biles was visibly annoyed as she made her way off the podium.

Her score of 13.733 dropped her behind Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade through two rotations.

Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and other members of the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team are in Paris to watch Simone Biles in the women’s all-around competition.

It wasn’t a surprise: When the team got together for training camp, it was basically unanimous that Biles was the athlete that they most wanted to see at the Paris Games.

The basketball team will be in the arena where gymnastics is being held starting next week, when the quarterfinals of their Olympic tournament take place on Tuesday.

Lee faceplanted during her warmup on uneven bars. It’s the second time she’s done that this week, but it hasn’t really hampered her. She was as good as ever there in qualifying when it counted.

Biles submitted a unique skill on uneven bars to the International Gymnastics Federation last week.

It’s unlikely we’ll see it during the all-around final.

Biles is only expected to do the move, which requires her to do a 540-degree turn while holding a handstand on the lower bar, if she makes the uneven bars final. She is currently the first alternate after qualifying ninth on the event.

One rotation in, and Biles is in the driver’s seat.

She landed her signature Yurchenko double pike that no other woman performs, collecting a huge 15.766 points. Her rival and friend Rebeca Andrade is in second place, 0.666 points behind after landing an excellent Cheng. Canada’s Ellie Black, who started on uneven bars, is in third, 1.700 off the pace.

Simone Biles’ husband, Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens, is sitting with his in-laws for the all-around competition. And he’s keeping score, too.

After Biles opened her night with the vault, the camera cut to her family — her parents are in matching T-shirts that say “Biles Biles Biles” — and NBC reported that Owens was writing down the scores with a special pen he bought at the Louvre earlier Thursday.

The pen’s depiction: the Mona Lisa.

No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. The scores on vault are almost always higher than they are on other events.

The reason is pretty simple: gymnasts only do one skill on the vault, so there’s less to mess up as opposed to the other three apparatuses, where gymnasts connect multiple skills together to build a difficulty score during a routine.

Biles brought out the Yurchenko double pike vault after passing on doing one during the team final to protect her tender left calf.

Biles is the only woman to ever complete the vault in competition and it carries her name in the sport’s Code of Points. The move requires her to do a roundoff back handspring onto the vaulting table, followed by two back flips while clasping her legs.

She took a sizable step back on her dismount but otherwise kept it under control.

Biles is off and running in her quest for another Olympic all-around title. Her score on the vault: 15.766.

It’s a significant lead over Andrade’s 15.100 already, with three events left for both.

There was speculation Andrade could attempt a Yurchenko triple twist during the final.

The Brazilian gymnast submitted the vault to be named after her in the sport’s Code of Points. She has performed it at training but did not try it the all-around. She instead opted for a difficult Cheng that earned her 15.100 points. It was nearly flawless.

She will have another chance to perform the Yurchenko triple twist in the vault final next week. If she succeeds, the vault would be the first skill named after Andrade.

The defending Olympic all-around champion is behind her Tokyo pace at the start.

Sunisa Lee was the first athlete on the vault, and the 21-year-old American who won the title at the Tokyo Games three years ago took a bit of a hop on the landing. Her score was 13.933.

Her score on the vault in the Tokyo all-around: 14.600.

The all-around final has officially started, with Sarah Voss of Germany kicking proceedings off on the floor exercise.