By: Sandy Wang

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Simone Biles, known for being the first female U.S. gymnast to earn four gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics, made a mistake on uneven bars. When transitioning from the high bar to the low bar, she positioned herself incorrectly and ended up having to bend her knees and do an extra swing.

On August 1, 2024, Biles made a comeback when she won her second Olympic all-around title after her mistake left her behind Rebeca Andrade of Brazil. During vault, Biles landed the Yurchenko double pike, which is the world’s most difficult vault. She was also the first and only gymnast to ever land it. Because of the difficulty level, Biles earned an eight-tenths of a point advantage over Andrade, as she completed a vault with a lower difficulty level called a Cheng.

However, the next event, uneven bars, is where Biles made a big mistake. When transitioning from the high bar to the low bar, she had to bend her legs and do an extra swing, therefore lowering her score to third place.

When it was Biles’s turn on beam, she wobbled less than any of the other gymnasts that would eventually receive a medal. She also ended with a full-twisting double back dismount off the bean, which is very difficult. This put her back in first place, but she was only two-tenths of a point ahead of Andrade, making this still anyone’s game.

Finally, Biles secured her win with her floor routine, which included a triple-twisting double back flip with her knees tucked to her chest and a half-twisting double back flip with her body straight, both moves named after her. Andrade got second place with her routine after stepping out of bounds once.

Even before the final score was announced, Biles and her teammate Sunisa Lee, who won bronze, already knew who the winner would be and were just waiting with the U.S. flag until they announced it and made it official.