After winning her fifth Olympic gold medal at the women’s gymnastics team final, Simone Biles is set to compete on Thursday in the individual all-around final. If successful, she will become the third woman in history to win the all-around gold for a second time.
Here’s what else to know about Biles and her competition schedule at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
When is Simone Biles competing next?
The next women’s gymnastics event for Simone Biles and Team USA is the all-around final on Thursday, beginning at 12.15pm ET.
She is competing in the all-around final and the finals for vault, balance beam and floor exercise. The women’s vault is on 3 August, uneven bars is on 4 August, while the balance beam and floor exercise is on 5 August.
More information about rotations for each event is available on the official Olympics site.
How to watch the Olympics
The Guardian will have live gymnastics coverage, along with overall daily coverage of the Games.
NBC will host the Olympics broadcast on TV in the US, while their streaming service, Peacock, will carry coverage online. NBC’s dedicated Olympics website offers a 30-minute free trial to watch the Games (before being asked to sign up for their paid service).
How many medals has Biles won in Paris?
Biles won her fifth Olympic gold medal after anchoring the United States to a commanding win in the women’s gymnastics team final earlier this week.
The US gymnasts claimed their ninth consecutive medal in the team event and the fourth women’s team gold. Team USA previously won the all-around gold in women’s gymnastics at the Atlanta Games in 1996, in London in 2012 and at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
The five-woman squad – made up of Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera – returned the US to the top of the Olympic podium in dominant fashion. They posted a combined score of 171.296, nearly six points clear of Italy (165.494), who earned their first artistic gymnastics medal in 96 years. Brazil took bronze (164.497), the first team medal in gymnastics in their country’s history.
The gold came three years after the US team – which included Chiles, Lee and Carey – nabbed a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics when Biles withdrew from the team final after suffering from “the twisties”. Restoring their place at the top of the podium, the team ranked first across all four disciplines – vault, uneven bars, balance beam and the floor exercise – this year.
“I think we all had something to prove from Tokyo,” a jubilant Biles said after the event. “And tonight we did just that.”
How many medals does Simone Biles have in total?
Biles is the most decorated gymnast in US history, and has five Olympic gold medals and 38 medals at world championships and Olympics. She has won eight medals across three Olympic games.
If she reaches the podium in each of her individual events, her Paris medal haul of five will match her Rio take-home amount. Biles won two medals in Tokyo in 2020, despite withdrawing from the all-around competition over mental health concerns.
If she wins gold, she will become the third woman to win the sport’s greatest prize for a second time after Larisa Latynina of the USSR (1956 and 1960) and Věra Čáslavská of Czechoslovakia (1964 and 1968).
What to know about her ‘lazy’ Instagram caption
After winning gold, Biles posted a photo to Instagram of herself celebrating atop the podium alongside her teammates. Her six-word caption spoke volumes: “lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions”.
The caption was a direct response to recent comments by MyKayla Skinner, a former US gymnast who won a silver medal on vault at the 2020 Olympics and recently criticized the team’s talent, depth and work ethic beyond Biles.
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t what it used to be,” Skinner said. “I mean, obviously, a lot of girls just don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic,” she said in part.
Skinner later apologized – but it’s clear that Biles hasn’t forgotten the comment.
What about the men’s competition?
The men’s all-around finals took place on Wednesday, with Frederick Richard and Paul Juda competing for Team USA. The men’s team took home the bronze at the team final on Monday – the first gymnastics team medal for the US men since 2008.
