PARIS (AP) — Simone Biles earned her seventh Olympic gold medal by soaring to victory in the women’s vault final at the Paris Games on Saturday.
Posted August 3, 2024 10:17 a.m. EDT
Updated August 3, 2024 12:44 p.m. EDT
By WILL GRAVES, AP National Writer
PARIS — PARIS Simone Biles earned her seventh Olympic gold medal by soaring to victory in the women’s vault final at the Paris Games on Saturday.
The 27-year-old Biles averaged 15.300 for her signature Yurchenko double pike and Cheng vaults to claim a second gold on the event eight years after she triumphed in Rio de Janeiro.
Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, who finished runner-up to Biles in the all-around final on Thursday, took silver, just ahead of American Jade Carey, who captured the bronze.
Biles is the second woman to win vault twice, joining Vera Casalavska of Czechoslovakia as a two-time gold medalist on the vault. Casalavska went back to back in 1964 and 1968. Biles now has 10 Olympic medals in her career, tied for the third most by a female gymnast. She also boosted her medal count at major international competitions to 40, the most by any gymnast.
The crowd inside a packed Bercy Arena roared when Biles was introduced. Wearing a sequined red leotard, she delivered another show-stopping performance in what could be the last vault competition of her life.
She drilled her Yurchenko double pike, exploding off the block and then flipping backward twice with her hands clasped behind her knees.
