PARIS – Before zipping up the bag she would take to Bercy Arena for the women’s individual all-around gymnastics final, Simone Biles slipped in a glittery silver necklace. Just in case.
It is of a farm animal.
A goat.
As in, the G.O.A.T.
Greatest of all time.
A few hours later, with Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and the rest of Bercy Arena roaring, Biles retrieved it from the bag and slipped it over her neck. She would also have a gold medal slipped over her neck, ahead of Brazil’s Rebecca Andrade and U.S. teammate Suni Lee, but the latter merely reinforced the former.
Biles became just the third woman to win two Olympic all-around crowns and the first since Vera Caslavska representing Czechoslovakia in 1968. More impressive: In a sport that historically spits out competitors as they exit their teens, Biles becomes the first woman to win nonconsecutively. and. at 27. the oldest winner since 30-year-old Maria Gorokhovskaya of the Soviet Union in 1952.
Biles won as a 19-year-old in 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, then was favored again three years ago in the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games. And then suddenly, dramatically, implausibly withdrew from the team final minutes before the first rotation and skipped the individual all-around as well.
“I thought,” she said, “I’d never step foot on a gymnastics floor again because of everything that happened.”
She went public with her mental health issues and encouraged others to do the same. She began “religiously” seeing a therapist every Thursday (and even scheduled a remote session at 7 a.m. Thursday in Paris, which was midnight for her therapist back in Houston). She returned to competition. She made the Olympic team.
Now here she was, cruising along in the all-around final after unleashing her signature Yurchenko double pike vault that has such a high degree of difficulty, that is so unimaginably challenging, she scored 15.766 despite essentially landing on one leg and taking a giant step backward.
The uneven bars were next.
“Out of all the events,” she said, “bars is the one I haven’t messed up on, like, once the entire training here or back in Houston.”
And … she messed up, badly, botching a release from the high to low bar and needing to splay her legs to avoid dragging them along the floor and taking an even bigger deduction.
Her score: 13.773, well below the 14.333 and 14.400 she received in the team event.
Biles walked to where her family was sitting and asked her husband, Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens, where she stood. He flashed three fingers.
The standings after two of four rotations:
1. Rebecca Andrade (Brazil) 29.766
2. Kaylia Nemour (Algeria) 29.566
3. Biles 29.499
“After the bars, when I saw the score come up, I was like, ‘Oh goodness,’” Biles said. “I was probably praying to every single god out there, trying to refocus and re-center myself. … I mean, I was uncomfortable, guys. I was stressing.”
Lee, sitting next to Biles at the post-event news conference, chimed in: “I swear, I’ve never seen you that stressed.”
The next event was balance beam, where she hasn’t been as consistent, and she was first up in her six-person group. No problem. Aside from a slight wobble, she stayed upright and stuck the dismount: 14.566, the highest beam score among the 24 finalists.
That put her back in first, although by a mere .166 points.
Floor exercise was next, set to music from Taylor Swift and Beyonce. It contains two tumbling runs so riddled with difficulty that they’re named after her, and she landed them without incurring penalties for stepping out, as she often does from the sheer momentum generated by her uncanny speed, height and power.
Her score: 15.066.
Her medal: gold.
Floor exercise was the clincher but it was a decision on the first rotation, the vault, that was equally important. Biles had initially planned to do a Cheng vault, which carries less difficulty, out of an abundance of caution. She switched to the Yurchenko double pike at the last moment.
The winning margin of 1.199 points was her narrowest in an Olympics or World Championships since 2015.
“I just knew how phenomenal of an athlete (Andrade) is,” Biles said. “On each event, we’re very similar in scores. I was like, I think I have to bring out the big guns this time. … 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.”
In Tokyo, Andrade became the only South American woman to win an Olympic all-around medal. Now she has a second silver.
Lee has a second all-around medal to go with the gold she won three years ago in Biles’ absence. Overshadowed by Biles’ struggles, her comeback was even more abbreviated and, perhaps, impressive.
In March 2023, she was diagnosed with a rare kidney disorder, shut down her college season early at Auburn and was told by doctors she may never compete again. It wasn’t until last winter that she returned to the gym.
“It’s crazy that I was here,” Lee said. “I did everything that I could. I told myself not to put any pressure on myself, because I didn’t want to think about past Olympics or even trying to prove to anybody anything. I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, because I didn’t think that I could.
“It has taken a lot.”
She and Biles ran onto the floor after the final standings were posted, celebrating with an American flag. Then Biles found her bag, reached in and slipped on a glittery necklace of a farm animal.
She now has six gold and nine total Olympic medals, the most by an American and equaling the great Nadia Comaneci of Romania. And she still has three individual apparatus finals here in vault, beam and floor.
“I was like, OK, if it goes well, we’ll wear the goat necklace,” Biles said. “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.”
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