Simone Biles passes Shannon Miller to become most decorated Olympic gymnast in US history
Simone Biles is running out of historic thresholds to cross off.
The 27-year-old American gymnast led the US to a team gold in the women’s gymnastics final on Tuesday, clinching the medal with her floor routine. Italy took silver.
For Biles, Tuesday’s gold medal marks her eighth Olympic medal overall. This makes her the most decorated Olympic gymnast in US history, as she surpassed “Magnificent Seven” star Shannon Miller for most career Olympic medals.
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Miller last competed in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, when she also led the U.S. to a team gold. Miller also won an individual gold in balance beam that year, which made up her only two Olympic gold medals.
But Biles’ Olympic gold medal total is now up to five. She already held the record for most golds by an American gymnast, having won four at the Rio Olympics.
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If Biles has a similar performance in Paris, she could possibly make a run at the all-time world record for career gold medals by a woman gymnast. That record is currently held by former Soviet Union gymnast Larisa Latynina, who has nine in total.
With five, Biles has a chance to catch Latynina in Paris. Biles qualified for four individual event finals: all-around; vault, balance beam and floor exercise.
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If she medals in all of those events, gold or not, then she would also catch another fellow American in total career medals. Former track and field athlete Allyson Felix is the only non-swimmer American woman who has more Olympic medals than Biles with 11.
Biles is within striking distance of this history despite the fact that her performance at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 was a near-wash after she pulled out of competing due to a case of “the twisties.” She only came home with a silver team medal after that thanks to her teammates.
There was no guarantee that Biles would return to compete in Paris this summer after pulling out in Tokyo due to her age. At 27, she is the oldest woman’s gymnast to ever win an Olympic gold medal and five years older than Aly Raismanm who previously held the record for oldest gold medalist.
But Biles made her return to the international stage last summer at the World Championships in Antwerp Belgium when she became the most decorated gymnast in world history with her 37th career medal at an international competition. She earned an automatic qualification for Paris and is now in position to try and cross off some of the final historic thresholds left in what is likely to be her final Olympics.
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