By: Vivian Tang
On Thursday, August 1st, Simone Biles, an American gymnast, won her second Olympic all-around title by defeating Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, who won silver.
Biles performed the most difficult vault, called the Yurchenko double pike. The difficulty of her technique earned her 8/10 of a point ahead of Andrade.
On bars, Biles made a big mistake, according to the New York Times, leaving her in 3rd place at the halfway point of the entire competition. Meanwhile, Biles’ teammate, Sunisa Lee, started to make ground.
“That’s not the bars that I’ve been training. Out of all of the events, I think bars is the one I haven’t messed up on once. The whole entire training, here or back in Houston,” Biles said.
On beam, most of the gymnasts had a slight wobble, but Biles kept hers to a minimum and took back the lead. At this time, Andrade was only a few tenths of a point behind Biles.
After the floor, Biles secured 1st place and became the first woman in more than 50 years to win two Olympic all-around titles. Her routine had two skills named after her: a triple-twisting double backflip with her knees tucked to her chest and a half-twisting double backflip with her body straight.
Biles says that she was overwhelmed with emotions after finishing competing in the Paris Olympics in an interview.
“The next Olympics is on home turf. I’m just going to relax and see where life takes me,” Biles said after ending her Paris Olympics with four medals.
Biles was confident that she would win, even before the last score showed up.