Simone Biles’ brilliant comeback and other takeaways from the individual all-around gymnastics final

CNN

By Kyle Feldscher, CNN

Paris (CNN) — Simone Biles is once again the Olympic gold medalist in individual all-around gymnastics after winning one of the most dramatic finals of these Paris Olympics.

Biles held off a spirited challenge from brilliant Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, who once again won silver and Biles’ teammate Suni Lee took the bronze.

Here are four takeaways from Thursday’s all-around gymnastics final.

Biles stumbles on the bars and then shows why she’s the GOAT

For a brief moment, it looked like Biles might be in deep trouble.

A stumble on the uneven bars dropped her into third place halfway through the final as Andrade, the silver medalist in Tokyo three years ago, looked like she might be ready to seize the moment.

“That’s not the bars that I’ve been training,” Biles said afterward. “Out of all of the events, I think bars is the one that I haven’t messed up on like once the whole entire training, here or back in Houston.”

These Games have been all about Biles. She is the glowing sun around which these gymnastics competitions have revolved. The questions about whether she could come back from her stunning experience with the ‘twisties’ in Tokyo were answered on Tuesday. A new question was suddenly being asked: was the Brazilian Andrade just simply going to be better tonight?

On the next rotation, Biles leapt onto the balance beam and emphatically served up an answer: no.

Before she went to the beam, Biles said she was “just refocusing and making sure that as soon as we go to beam since I’m first up, I can just recenter myself and finish the rest of the competition because it’s not over ‘til it’s over.”

Even with a few wobbles trying to catch her balance, Biles turned in the highest score on the balance beam of the night with a 14.566 and retook the lead heading into the floor exercise. When Andrade turned in a floor routine with a relatively easier difficulty score (by Biles’ standards anyway) and failed to wow the judges with her execution, it was once again the American superstar alone on the floor with a chance for gold.

A massive score of 15.066, the highest of the day, sealed the gold. It was an exercise in clutch that was worthy of the greatest of all time.

Still, Biles said afterward that Andrade had her worried.

“I don’t want to compete with Rebeca no more. I’m tired,” Biles said. “She’s way too close. I’ve never had an athlete that close, so it definitely put me on my toes, and it brought up the best athlete in myself, so I’m excited and proud to compete with her but … it was uncomfortable, guys. I was stressing.”

Andrade brings the challenge to Biles

Still, Andrade was a worthy challenger.

Her artistry and rhythm were infectious and, until her final floor exercise penalty, she turned in an incredibly solid, well-rounded performance.

She made history finishing in second in this competition three years ago, becoming the first South American to win a medal in the individual all-around event. She had a large traveling contingent of fans in her corner on Thursday night, chanting her name in the dramatic final moments of the competition.

Her glowing yellow leotard matched the energy of her fans and, for much of the meet, it seemed like she may be the only gymnast on the planet who could match Biles. It was only that floor performance that let her down.

Andrade and Biles will face off again in the vault finals later on this week. At the World Championships last year, Andrade took gold in the vault, while Biles took silver. It was the first time anyone had managed to beat Biles on the vault since 2015.

That competition is set for Saturday – and what a treat we’re in for.

Suni Lee charges for the bronze

The defending all-around gold medalist was largely in the background for the first two rotations of the final as Biles and Andrade drew most of the attention.

But Lee did enough in the first three-quarters of the night to keep herself in contention. And when she took the floor in the third-from-last performance of the competition, she seized the moment with aplomb.

After completing her first combination, Lee was beaming. Clearly feeling the crowd’s love and gaining momentum, she turned in a fantastic performance that catapulted her from a tie for fourth to a guaranteed medal spot. Tension had gripped the Bercy Arena here in Paris for much of the final hour of the competition, and Lee’s medal-clinching performance brought a burst of noise from the American fans that felt like nervous energy being released.

Lee and Biles sprinted around the floor with an American flag after the latter clinched her gold. The winners of the last three individual all-around gymnastics gold medals took in the moment to soak in the cheers.

After her long road back from a kidney infection and other injuries that took her out of competition for months, it was a moment for Lee to savor.

“I really didn’t think that I would even get on podium, so it’s just like crazy that I was here and I did everything that I could,” Lee said.

“I went out there and I just told myself not to put any pressure on myself because I didn’t want to think about past Olympics or even trying to like prove to anybody anything. Because I wanted to just prove to myself that I could do it because I didn’t think that I could, but it’s taken a lot.”

A perfectly dramatic finish

The atmosphere inside the gym could not have been more different than Tuesday night’s team final. By the final rotation in the team competition, it was clear Team USA was running away with the gold. The atmosphere then was celebratory as American, Italian and Brazilian fans all were celebrating historic achievements.

On Thursday, it was almost eerie how quiet the arena became at points.

There was almost no chatter when the music from the floor exercises died down and it appeared the gravity of the moment was weighing on the tens of thousands in the stands, let alone the athletes themselves.

The way the last rotation broke down was almost perfect – Kaylia Nemour of Algeria, Lee, Andrade and Biles ended the rotation, each of them competing for a space on the podium. Italian Alice D’Amato watched from the side of the apparatus, hoping she had done enough to get herself a medal.

The pressure was immense. The air inside the arena could be cut with a knife. It was incredible.

And at the end, it was the two best athletes in their sport duking it out to be called the best in the world. It was everything the Olympics is supposed to be.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct a quote from Suni Lee.

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