U.S. gymnast Simone Biles finishes ahead of Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade in the individual vault event to earn her third gold medal of the Paris Olympics.
Simone Biles craned her neck to watch the score flash across the big screen. When it flashed — 15.300 — her smile was the only thing brighter than Bercy Arena’s lights.
Biles claimed her seventh Olympic gold medal and 10th Olympic medal overall by adding a vault title on Saturday.
The 27-year-old put up an untouchable 15.700 score with a Yurchenko double pike on her first vault — her eponymous skill that no other woman has attempted in competition before — then backed it up with a 14.900 on her second vault. With Biles’ considerable difficulty, no woman in the competition had a chance to match her score.
The top challenger, the reigning Olympic vault champion Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, did not attempt a new skill that could have helped her challenge Biles, but executed two nearly flawless vaults to take silver with 14.
