The women’s all-around final could be one of the most exciting events of the Paris 2024 Games with two Olympic all-around champions competing in the final and the potential for Simone Biles to make history once again.
Biles will be looking for her second Olympic all-around crown and sixth Olympic gold medal (her second in Paris), but will face stiff competition from Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, who finished second to Biles at the 2023 World Championships.
Few have been able to keep pace with Biles in her career, but Andrade has come the closest.
Notably, in the team final, Andrade’s four-event total was just 0.366 tenths behind Biles. That means a couple of steps here and there could make the difference.
However, it’s worth noting that Biles opted for a Cheng (5.6 D-score) in the team final instead of the Yurchenko double pike (6.4 D-score), which adds eight tenths to her maximum scoring potential. However, Andrade could possibly perform an upgraded vault as well.
Andrade submitted a new skill — a triple twisting Yurchenko — which was awarded a 6.0 D-score. If Andrade goes for the skill in the all-around final she would get a four tenth boost in her scoring potential.
No female gymnast has ever successfully landed the vault in competition, so if Andrade succeeds, the skill would be named after her in the Code of Points — the first skill to bear her name.
Biles also has a new skill on the uneven bars that she could potentially compete in the all-around final. In fact, this will be her final opportunity to get the skill named in Paris since she did not qualify for the uneven bar final.
At the start of Biles’ uneven bar routine in the second rotation, be on the lookout for a clear hip circle forward with 1.5 turns — a more difficult variation of the very first skill in her routine (a Weiler half) — which she has competed for most of her career.
Biles already has five skills named after her (two vaults, a beam dismount and two floor skills), so if she successfully performs the skill in Paris, it would become her sixth eponymous skill and the first named after her on the uneven bars.
If Biles wins the all-around title, she will be just the third woman in history to win the all-around gold medal twice, joining Larisa Latynina (1956 and 1960) and Vera Caslavska (1964 and 1968).
At age 27, Biles can also become the oldest women's all-around Olympic gold medalist since the Soviet Union's Maria Gorokhovskaya, who won the gold medal in 1952 at age 30.
Also competing in the all-around final will be defending Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee. Lee finished third in qualifications, just over 1.5 points behind Andrade.
Lee has faced significant challenges from two kidney diseases in the lead-up to Paris, which have affected her training. Although she's not competing at the same level of difficulty as she did when she won gold in Tokyo, she remains a strong contender for the bronze medal.