A once-in-a-lifetime showdown occurred at the women’s individual all-around as the last two Olympic gold medalists — Americans Simone Biles (2016) and Suni Lee (2020) — went head-to-head for the first time in event history. Despite an immense effort at the throne from Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, it was Biles who pulled through in her usual clutch fashion to win gold for the sixth time in her Olympic career.
Biles, 27, entered the competition at an advanced age for a gymnast but proved to be as game as ever. In fact, she became the oldest all-around gold medalist since 1952 (Maria Gorokhovskaya of USSR). Biles dominated her peers in each rotation — outside of a mistake on uneven parallel bars — with her high degrees of difficulty giving her an immense advantage she capitalized upon.