OAN Staff Sophia Flores
12:55 PM – Thursday, August 1, 2024
Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee have won gold and bronze for Team USA in the gymnastics All-Around Final. This is the first time in gymnastics that two previous Olympic All-Around champions have been on the same Olympic medal podium.
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As soon as the competition was officially over on Thursday, Lee and Biles jumped on to the floor with an American Flag in their hands to celebrate. Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, who won silver, joined them on the floor with a Brazilian flag.
Biles won the gold with an impressive final score of 59.131. Andrade clenched the silver with a 57.932. Lee won the bronze with a score of 56.333, just beating out the fourth-place finisher by a winning margin of 0.132.
Both Americans have overcome major challenges since their last Olympics.
In Tokyo during the 2020 Olympics, Biles pulled out of the same event at the games due to the “twisties.” The twisties are a mental block that causes gymnasts to disconnect between their brain and body while preforming a twisting skill in midair. In the last four years, she has put time into her mental health as well as into the gym, coming back stronger than ever.
Biles is commonly referred to as the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) in gymnastics. She paid homage to that by pulling out a diamond-encrusted goat necklace after she won her second all-around title.
Lee won the all-around gold in the 2020 Olympics. She began her college gymnastics career soon after. However, she was diagnosed with a chronic kidney disease which forced her to take a break from the sport. In January 2024, she received positive news from her doctors that the medication she was on was working and that she could resume her gymnastics training.
Biles’s win is the seventh All-Around Olympic gold for Team USA in this event. Previous American Olympic All-Around Champions include Mary Lou Retton, Los Angeles 1984, Carly Patterson, Athens 2004, Nastia Liukin, Beijing 2008, Gabby Douglas, London 2012, Simone Biles, Rio de Janiero 2016, and Suni Lee, Tokyo 2020.
Biles has now been added to the exclusive list for the second time.
The two girls are set to compete next in individual competitions at the Summer Games. Biles will next compete on Saturday, August 3rd in the vault event. Lee will compete on the uneven bars on Sunday, August 4th.
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