Simone Biles has surpassed Nadia Comaneci's Olympic medal tally. (IMAGE: GETTY)

Simone Biles surpasses legendary Nadia Comaneci's Olympic medal tally; can win two more at Paris Olympics 2024

Modified Aug 03, 2024 16:38 GMT

Simone Biles entered the 2024 Paris Olympics as one of the greatest gymnasts of all time, and she has meticulously strengthened that claim in the French capital.

On Tuesday (July 30), Biles helped Team USA win gold in the women’s team event. She performed impressively on all four apparatus, which saw the United States finish on 171.296: a massive 5.802 points ahead of second-placed Italy.

Later on Thursday, Biles clinched her sixth Olympic gold medal in the women's gymnastics all-around final, with a 59.131 overall score. In doing so, she became only the third woman, after Larisa Latynina and Vera Caslavska, to win the all-around gold medal twice. In the vault final on Saturday, the 27-year-old put in a splendid display to take the top podium spot with a 15.300 score.

With her 10th medal at the Summer Games, she has now surpassed Nadia Comaneci's Olympic medal tally of nine. On her Olympic debut in Rio 2016, Biles won four gold and one bronze medal. At the Tokyo Games, she won one bronze and one silver medal.

The legendary Comaneci was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10.0 at the Olympics. She won five gold, three silver, and one bronze medal across two editions — Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980. During her career, she also won four World Artistic Gymnastics Championship medals.

Biles could add two more medals to her record this season. She is set to participate in the balance beam finals and floor exercise finals on Monday.

Simone Biles wins third gold medal at 2024 Paris Olympic with the move named after her

Simone Biles in action at the 2024 Paris Olympics (IMAGE: GETTY)

Three gold medals at one edition of the Olympics is an iconic feat few can match. But Simone Biles has done it at the 2024 Paris Olympics, clinching the third with a move that has been named after her.

In the vault final on Saturday, she performed her signature Biles II vault. The move has a round-off back handspring onto the table followed by two backward flips in the pike position with the hands clasped to the knees.

The explosive Yurchenko double pike saw the American get a massive 15.700 score. In her second effort, she performed the Cheng vault and earned 14.900. With an average of 15.300 points, she won gold comfortably.

Brazil's Rebeca Andrade (14.966) won the silver and Team USA's Jade Carey (14.466) took home the bronze medal.