American Sunisa Lee won gold in the women’s gymnastics all-around final at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday as her teammate and defending champion Simone Biles cheered her on from the sidelines.
The 18-year-old Lee captured the gold with a strong floor routine in the final rotation, finishing with a total score of 57.433. Brazil’s Rebecca Andrade won silver with a score of 57.298 while the Russian Olympic Committee’s Angelina Melnikova took bronze (57.199).
Biles, who won four gold medals in 2016 in Rio, was favored entering the Games but withdrew from the team and all-around events, citing mental health. The 24-year-old was poised to become the first woman to win back-to-back Olympic all-around titles in over 50 years, having won every all-around competition she has entered since 2013.
“I had to switch gears,” Lee said of Biles’ withdrawal. “We were coming in to compete for second place. When there was the opportunity there, I had to do what I normally do. The whole season, I’ve been second to her.”
Lee becomes the sixth American gymnast to win an Olympic all-around gold. Mary Lou Retton captured the first title in 1984, and Team USA has added five in a row with Carly Patterson (2004), Nastia Lukin (2008), Gabby Douglas (2012), Biles (2016) and Lee.
Lee started off her day strong as the first to compete on vault, where she had a nearly flawless Yurchenko double twist to earn a 14.600. During the bar rotation, she had a few struggles with her difficult routine but made adjustments to score an impressive 15.300.
After three rotations, Lee held the top spot in the competition with a score of 43.733. She was among a four-way race atop the leaderboard with Andrade and the ROC’s Melnikova and Vladislava Urazova. All were within half a point of each other.
Lee secured her gold-medal finish by scoring 13.700 on her floor routine.
