Breaking News: Gymnast Simone Biles won the all-around title at the Olympics. She is the all-around champion for a second time, winning it three years after dropping out in Tokyo with a mental block….See More

Biles, returning to the sport’s top stage after withdrawing from the team event in 2021, beat out stiff competition from Rebeca Andrade of Brazil. Sunisa Lee of the United States claimed the bronze.

Three years after withdrawing from the team final of the Tokyo Olympics with a mental block, a move that prompted critics to call her a loser, a quitter and un-American, Simone Biles on Thursday proved to the world — and to herself — that she was unstoppable.

Biles, 27, won the all-around title at the Paris Games, becoming the oldest all-around champion since 1952 and only the third woman — and first since 1968 — to win two Olympic all-around titles.

In securing her ninth Olympic medal, Biles pushed her record total of Olympic and world championship medals to 39, and reaffirmed her standing as the greatest gymnast in American history and one of the best athletes of all time.

Wearing a leotard reminiscent of Wonder Woman’s suit, a fitting choice for the most decorated gymnast ever, Biles nailed all four of her routines, including her final one, on the floor exercise, under extraordinary pressure. At the end, she waved to a crowd that chanted, “U-S-A! U-S-A!” and then rested her elbows on the floor. And exhaled.

Rebeca Andrade of Brazil won the silver medal, finishing 1.199 points behind Biles. Biles’s teammate Sunisa Lee, the all-around champion at the Tokyo Games, won the bronze — a remarkable accomplishment, considering what she has endured. After being diagnosed less than two years ago with two kidney diseases that limited her training, Lee thought that she might never compete in gymnastics again.

After Tokyo, Biles also took time off — but for different reasons. She began seeing a therapist every Thursday and reset her body and her mind. With no expectations of winning medals, she returned to her sport so her story would have a different, and better, ending.

Biles went into the all-around with confidence. Winning a gold medal earlier in the week — in the team event — helped. With fans waving huge photos of her head and banners that said, “Simone for President!”, she performed with both joy and genius as the Americans reclaimed the Olympic title. The American team won silver in Tokyo.

But on Thursday, the all-around was not so simple for Biles, who has become accustomed to winning by comfortable, if not cavernous, margins. Andrade, who also won silver in the all-around at the Tokyo Games, put pressure on Biles with brilliant performances on each apparatus.

Biles started the competition on vault, which bedeviled her in Tokyo when she became disoriented in the air. Just as she did during qualifying and in Tuesday’s team final, Biles aced her dangerous vault, the Yurchenko double pike, which allows for little margin of error because she could easily land on her head or break her neck.

On this night, there were no flashbacks. No anxiety. Just Biles, at 4-foot-8, flying like a sparkly red, white and blue ball of fireworks, as the packed crowed hushed. When she landed on her feet, the spectators roared, applauding an effort that would earn her 15.766 points — an excellent score.

Next up was the uneven bars, and an uncharacteristic break in her routine gave Biles a score of 13.733 points, allowing Andrade and Kaylia Nemour of Algeria to move ahead of her in the standings.

But Biles kept her composure, performing a solid routine on the balance beam, scoring 14.566 points to move into the lead, but only by 0.166 points. Andrade’s score on the beam moved her into second place.

While Biles’s attitude at the Olympics had been super upbeat going into the all-around, smiling between events and joking with her teammates during the team final, it seemed to change as Thursday’s event unfolded. She was proud of herself for rediscovering her love for the sport and returning to the Olympics, but she was also an intense competitor who wants to win. Her smile disappeared, replaced by a fierce look of concentration.

Only the floor exercise was left. Biles had qualified first in the event, with Andrade in second. Biles went in with an edge: Her floor routine is the hardest in the world, with the highest degree of difficulty and the best chance for an enormous score.

To screams of the crowd and, initially, to the deep, loud beats of the Taylor Swift song “…Ready For It?”, she hit complicated tumbling pass after complicated tumbling pass to score 15.066 points — and win.

When her score was posted on the big screen, she leaped up and down, grabbed an American flag and stood on the floor with Lee, waving it.

This is not the end for Biles in Paris: She also will compete in the finals of the vault, balance beam and floor exercise.