Simone Biles won her second all-around gymnastics title on Thursday, claiming her sixth Olympic gold medal with a stunning performance in Paris.
Fellow American Suni Lee, who won the event in Tokyo, took bronze with a score of 56.465. Rebeca Andrade of Brazil won silver with 57.932, just shy of Biles' 59.131.
Biles' victory is a historic one, making it the sixth straight gold medal the U.S. has won in event, the only country to hold such a streak. She's also the third woman to win two Olympic all-around titles -- joining Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union in 1956 and 1960 and Vera Caslavska of Czechoslovakia in 1964 and 1968 -- and, at 27, is the oldest Olympic women’s gymnastics champion since 1952, when Maria Gorokhovskaya of the Soviet Union won the first ever all-around title in Helsinki.
Biles celebrated her victory with Lee at the center of the mat with an American flag, watched by a cheering crowd that included NBA great Kevin Durant and several of his Team USA teammates.
"Goat Biles," Durant wrote on social media shortly after her win, adding in a follow-up post: "I really believe Goat Biles can catch a lob and finish."
Biles was awarded her medal by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, joining the silver "goat" necklace around her neck, a tip of the hat to the "Greatest of All Time" designation many use to describe her.
After the playing of the American national anthem, Biles and Andrade joined Lee for a selfie photo -- met by deafening cheers as they left the podium.
For Lee, the medal was a triumph after spending much of the last 15 months dealing with multiple kidney diseases that left her return to the Games very much in doubt.
And for Biles, the margin was the smallest in a major international event since she captured the third of her record six world championships in 2015.
She was a teenager then. She's an icon now.
Her sixth gold and ninth overall medal — the same as Romanian great Nadia Comaneci, who was among the star-studded crowd — of Biles' unparalleled career did not come as easy as so many that came before.
She misjudged a transition on uneven bars, the weakest of her four events, letting go of the upper bar too soon and forcing her to reach for a larger-than-expect gap.
While she didn't fall — Biles muscled her way back into the routine — it blunted her momentum and led to major deductions that left her trailing Andrade through two rotations.
The deficit didn't last.
Biles responded with a largely wobble-free 14.566 on the balance beam, the highest of the night among the 24 finalists, while Andrade was forced to do a major balance check during her slightly easier set that dropped her down to second heading into floor exercise, Biles' signature event.
Andrade, the silver medalist behind Lee in 2021, needed the best floor set of her life to catch Biles. It didn't quite happen. Andrade stepped out of bounds at one point, a minor problem but enough to create plenty of wiggle room for the 25-year-old who has rarely needed it over the years.
Biles incorporated music from pop icons Taylor Swift and Beyonce into her current routine, a 75-second set that began with the opening bars of Swift's hit “Ready For It" and featured the hardest tumbling ever done by a woman in the history of the sport.
When she was done — sealing gold that served as a redemption of sorts three years after pulling out of multiple finals in Tokyo to focus on her mental health — Biles sprinted to hug Lee just off the podium and blew kisses to the cameras that have become fixtures wherever she goes under the Olympic rings.
While there may be more medals on the way — Biles is in three event finals later in the Games — the all-around puts her into the conversation as perhaps the greatest American Olympian ever.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.