The past 12 Olympic all-around women’s champions were teenagers, and even the last non-teen, Ludmilla Tourischeva, had turned 20 only a few weeks before she won in 1972.

Biles’ intention was clear from the outset of Thursday’s session.

Starting with her ‘Biles II’ vault – the hardest in women’s gymnastics – proved a good decision as she needed that extra buffer of points when she made an uncharacteristic mistake on the uneven bars.

“Thank God we did the double pike today [on vault] as I wasn’t planning on it,” she said.

She was behind Andrade after two rotations but pulled off a difficulty-packed beam routine, fighting off gravity to stay on the 10cm-wide apparatus, to score 14.566 and bring the crowd to their feet as she went back to the top of the standings.

Taking a lead of 0.166 into the final rotation on floor, Biles was last to perform and delivered a flawless demonstration of some of her best skills to post a total of 59.131.

That meant she finished a comfortable 1.199 ahead of Andrade, who could only applaud and enjoy what her rival had done, as did everyone else in the packed arena.

Biles helped the United States reclaim the team title two days ago, but Thursday evening was about her trying to once again take the prize of world’s best gymnast after the turbulence of Tokyo.

The pressure of expectation she faced going into the Games three years ago, her struggles without her family there because of the pandemic restrictions and her withdrawal from several finals when she suffered the disorientating mental block that gymnasts call the ‘twisties’ are all well-documented.

Biles, who returned to the sport after a two-year break last summer, told reporters she had weekly therapy sessions for the past three years and at other times during these Games.

“It means the world to me,” she said of her victory.

“I’m super proud of my performance and the fight that I’ve had for the last three years – mentally and physically – just to get back.”

But she did not have the easiest ride to gold, saying: “I’ve never been so stressed before – thank you Rebeca.”

She went as far as to say she never wanted to compete against the Brazilian again, although that will be hard in Paris as they have both qualified for the vault, beam and floor finals.

“I’ve never had an athlete that close – it definitely put me on my toes and brought out the best athlete in myself,” she said of Andrade, who was also the silver medallist in Tokyo.

A huge gasp sounded round the arena – where Kendall Jenner and basketball star Stephen Curry were among those attending – when she made a mistake when making a transition to the lower bar, needing to bend both knees to avoid touching the ground, and missed a connection to score 13.733 on uneven bars.

But that is traditionally the ‘weakest’ of her four pieces – and after some quick reassurance from her husband that she could still win she made up ground and stretched ahead with 14.566 on beam and 15.066 on floor.

(BBC)