The 2024 Paris Olympics are off to an epic start, and already, Simone Biles is making history. She won her second gold medal in the individual all-around competition, which combines the scores of all four gymnastics events for women: vault, bars, beam, and floor.
On her first apparatus, the vault, Biles performed a Yurchenko double pike, which helped her establish a commanding lead in the competition. She didn’t fall on the uneven bars, but she did lose that early lead. And despite two small wobbles on beam, the gymnast finished off her routine with a great dismount. During her floor routine—which is set to an instrumental version of Taylor Swift’s “…Ready For It?” off of 2017’s Reputation—Biles reminded the world why she is the Greatest of All Time. The Olympian received a total of 59.131 points in the individual all-around.
See her reaction to winning, below.
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After her score was announced, Biles rushed the mat with her teammate, Suni Lee, who took home the bronze medal.
It’s clear how much this moment, and this medal, mean to Biles. In 2021, she stepped back from competing at the Tokyo Olympics to prioritise her mental health. A few weeks before leaving for Paris, she opened up to ELLE about her journey back to the mat. “I am doing therapy weekly to keep everything in tune so that I feel comfortable and confident enough to be competing,” she said. “It’s been a crucial part of my training regimen.”
Read the original article in ELLE USA.
