Simone Biles won her second Olympic all-around title on Thursday by more than a point after recovering from an incorrect transition on the uneven bars, fending off Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, who won the silver medal.
Vault
Simone beautifully executed the world’s most difficult vault flip, the Yurchenko double pike, also known as the Biles II. This difficulty value gave her a cushion of eight-tenths of a point over Andrade, who performed a vault called a Cheng. Biles preformed her best attempt of these Olympics, soaring off the vault table for two flips in a pike position before landing on her feet with just a hop backward.
Bars
Biles made a significant mistake on the uneven bars, positioning herself incorrectly on a transition from the high bar to the low bar such that she had to bend her legs to avoid hitting the mat and then do an extra swing to regain her rhythm. The error left her in third place at the halfway point of the competition. Meanwhile Biles’s teammate, Sunisa Lee, started to make up ground.
Beam
All the eventual medalists had wobbled slightly on the balance beam, but Biles barely did and pulled back into the lead, capping her routine with a difficult full-twisting double back dismount. Andrade remained within a couple tenths of a point of hers, keeping the pressure on Biles as they headed into the final rotation.
Floor
With her neat floor routine, Biles cemented her lead in the all-around and became the first woman in more than half a century to win two Olympic all-around titles. The routine included two skills named after her: a triple-twisting double back flip with her knees tucked to her chest, and a half-twisting double back flip with her body straight. Andrade stepped out of bounds once in her routine but held on to place second.
Vault
Simone beautifully executed the world’s most difficult vault flip, the Yurchenko double pike, also known as the Biles II. This difficulty value gave her a cushion of eight-tenths of a point over Andrade, who performed a vault called a Cheng. Biles preformed her best attempt of these Olympics, soaring off the vault table for two flips in a pike position before landing on her feet with just a hop backward.
Bars
Biles made a significant mistake on the uneven bars, positioning herself incorrectly on a transition from the high bar to the low bar such that she had to bend her legs to avoid hitting the mat and then do an extra swing to regain her rhythm. The error left her in third place at the halfway point of the competition. Meanwhile Biles’s teammate, Sunisa Lee, started to make up ground.
Beam
All the eventual medalists had wobbled slightly on the balance beam, but Biles barely did and pulled back into the lead, capping her routine with a difficult full-twisting double back dismount. Andrade remained within a couple tenths of a point of hers, keeping the pressure on Biles as they headed into the final rotation.
Floor
With her neat floor routine, Biles cemented her lead in the all-around and became the first woman in more than half a century to win two Olympic all-around titles. The routine included two skills named after her: a triple-twisting double back flip with her knees tucked to her chest, and a half-twisting double back flip with her body straight. Andrade stepped out of bounds once in her routine but held on to place second.