Simone Biles’ Olympic medal collection has officially reached the double digits.
The American star defeated Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade once again in the vault apparatus final on Saturday, winning her third gold medal of the Paris Olympics. It’s her 10th Olympic medal and seventh gold.
Andrade won silver and American Jade Carey took bronze, redeeming a disappointing vault final in Tokyo, where she tripped on the runway.
The first day of individual apparatus finals kicked off today in Paris, with men’s floor exercise, women’s vault and men’s pommel horse.
To win an individual apparatus medal in vault, gymnasts must perform two vaults that have different entries onto the vaulting table. Biles performed her iconic namesake vault, the Yurchenko double pike, or “Biles II.” It’s the most difficult vault in the women’s rulebook and today’s landing was the best of her performances in Paris, earning a 15.700.
Her second vault was a “Cheng,” which involves a half-turn onto the table, followed by a 1.5 twist into the air. That scored a 14.900, earning Biles a 15.300 average between the two vaults.
In 2016, Biles became the the first American woman to win Olympic gold in vault. She faced even fiercer competition in Paris, with Andrade matching Biles’ exquisite execution, but trailing Biles slightly in terms of difficulty.
Andrade earned a massive 15.100 for her Cheng and a 14.833 for an equally beautiful Amanar, averaging a 14.966, below Biles’ 15.300. She opted not to debut an original skill on vault that would have been named the “Andrade”, a triple-twisting Yurchenko, and instead performed a 2.5 twist, or an Amanar.
It’s the same apparatus where the infamous “twisties” descended at the Tokyo Olympics, which prevented Biles from defending her title in 2021.
Every time Biles has donned her competition leotard in Paris, she has made history. In Tuesday’s team event, she officially became the most decorated American gymnast in the history of the Olympic Games, surpassing “Magnificent Seven” member Shannon Miller with eight medals.
That record stood for about 48 hours.
Her win in the individual all-around Thursday made her first American and just the third gymnast in history to win the Olympic all-around gold medal more than once. The others – Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union and Věra Čáslavská of Czechoslovakia – last competed in the 1960s.
Saturday’s vault final the third time Biles has performed her eponymous “Biles II” vault in Paris. She was required to do both of her vaults in Sunday’s qualification in order to earn a spot in the vault final, but was originally planning to opt for her more conservative of the two vaults, the Cheng, in the all-around final.
Biles ultimately decided that she would need to “bring out the big guns” — namely the “Biles II” vault — to beat out Andrade for the all-around gold.
“I don’t want to compete with Rebeca no more,” Biles said Thursday with a chuckle. “I’m tired. She’s way too close. I’ve never had an athlete that close, so it definitely put me on my toes and brought out the best athlete in myself.”
Biles has not announced her retirement, but she said, “I’m going to hand it to her now — she can have the rest.”
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