Kate Douglass, right, of the United States, is congratulated by Tatjana Smith, of South Africa, after winning the women's 200-meter breaststroke final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

PARIS — Simone Biles dazzled once again while winning the gold in women’s all-around gymnastics at the Paris Olympics, becoming the oldest woman to accomplish the feat since 1952.

The 27-year-old Biles nailed her floor exercise to edge Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade by 1.199 points in one of the tightest victories of her decorated career. She became the first woman to win the all-around gymnastics gold at nonconsecutive Olympics, having previously done so at the 2016 Rio Games.

“I’ve never had an athlete this close,” Biles said. “It brought out the best athlete in myself.”

It’s the sixth Olympic gold medal for Biles, the most of any U.S. gymnast; she picked up her fifth in the team competition earlier in the week. Teammate Sunisa Lee, the defending all-around champion from Tokyo, was third for the bronze.

Golden Biles

Biles huddled with Sunisa Lee. She looked to her husband Jonathan Owens in the stands. Lost in the moment. And maybe a touch frantic.

The American gymnastics star knew she was trailing Andrade and Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour through two rotations during the Olympic all-around final Thursday.

After a sloppy uneven bars that included a mistake Biles can never remember making in competition, she sat in a chair, closed her eyes, ignored the sea of cameras around her and attempted to refocus.

She and Lee tried to do the math. How bad was it? They weren’t sure. It had been a long time since it was this tight.

Biles checked with Owens, who reassured Biles that she was fine, even though she was in third. His wife of 15 months might not have believed him in the moment.

“I’ve just never been so stressed before,” Biles said.

Maybe because she hadn’t been pushed — not in a long time anyway — the way Andrade pushed inside an electric Bercy Arena.

Yet the jitters eventually faded. The 27-year-old who is redefining what a gymnast can do and how long she can do it went to work.

One stoic beam routine and one floor exercise that is unlike anything ever done in her sport later, Biles found herself accepting a gold medal from IOC president Thomas Bach for a second time, this time with Lee standing next to her with a bronze.

Eight years ago in Rio de Janeiro, Biles was a teenage prodigy. Now, she’s an icon. One who remains peerless even when she’s not perfect.

Biles now has nine Olympic medals, six of them gold. And while she says she doesn’t keep track of these things, she sort of does. The GOAT necklace she rocked in the aftermath isn’t a coincidence, even if she maintains she’s just “Simone Biles from Spring, Texas, that loves to flip.”

Maybe, but she’s also the third woman to become a two-time Olympic champion, joining Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union in 1956 and 1960 and Vera Caslavska of Czechoslovakia in 1964 and 1968. Oh, and the oldest to finish atop the all-around podium since then 30-year-old Maria Gorokhovskaya of the Soviet Union won the first-ever Olympic all-around in Melbourne in 1952.

The sport then is not what it is now. The days of “little girls in pretty boxes” are long gone. Biles has fueled that transformation one performance at a time. There’s a reason stars like the U.S. men’s basketball team and Kendall Jenner flock to watch her Thursday.

When Biles tried to downplay her impact, Lee corrected her.

“Honestly Simone, I think a lot of it has to do with you,” Lee said.

Even if her 39th world or Olympic medal didn’t come as easily as most of the 38 before it.

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 behind 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 Biles.

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 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.

After the final score was announced, Biles and Lee — both Olympic champions — bolted onto the floor, waving an American flag.

Lee, the Tokyo winner with Biles sidelined, is the first to win gold in all-around one Games then earn another medal in the next since Comaneci in 1976 and ‘80. She did it despite spending much of the last 15 months dealing with multiple kidney diseases that left her return to the Games very much in doubt.

Summer’s Games

Summer McIntosh, Canada’s 17-year-old swimming sensation, claimed her second gold medal of the Olympics with another strong performance, romping to victory in the 200-meter butterfly and dealing Regan Smith of the U.S. another runner-up finish.

“It means the world,” McIntosh said. “That was definitely one of my favorite races.”

McIntosh finished in 2:03.03 to set an Olympic record, breaking the mark set by China’s Zhang Yufei three years ago in Tokyo. She also won gold in the 400-meter individual medley and took home silver in the 400-meter freestyle.

Kate Douglass of the United States won gold in the 200-meter breaststroke in a race that was something of a changing of the guard. Longtime American star Lilly King, competing in her last Olympics, was last in the final.

In the final swimming event of the night, Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan, Lani Pallister, Brianna Throssell and Ariarne Titmus won the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay in an Olympic-record time, narrowly missing the world record. Claire Weinstein, Paige Madden, Katie Ledecky and Erin Gemmell got the U.S. silver, and China finished with bronze.

Ledecky collected the 13th medal of her stellar career to become the most decorated woman in swimming history Thursday.

U.S. beats Belgium

The U.S. women’s basketball team clinched a spot in the quarterfinals by beating Belgium 87-74. Breanna Stewart led all scorers with 26 points, while A’ja Wilson had 23 points and 13 rebounds.

The U.S. women are on a 57-game Olympic winning streak

The U.S. was tested by Belgium while extending its record Olympic winning streak that dates to the 1992 Barcelona Games.

This was one of the closer games during the historic run of seven consecutive gold medals. Only three contests have been single-digit victories.

“They’re just a really good team,” U.S. guard Diana Taurasi said. “A really, really good team. They probably are one of the best teams in the world. I mean it’s great you know, I think that it just shows how much they love basketball in Europe.”

The Americans (2-0) faced a loud, spirited pro-Belgium crowd that made up most of the 25,044 in attendance. The arena is about 30 minutes away from the country’s border.

The U.S. closes out pool play on Sunday against Germany, which also is 2-0.

In other games on Thursday, Germany and France both advanced to the quarterfinals with wins over Japan and Nigeria respectively. Australia topped Canada to keep its hopes of advancing alive.

Women’s tennis upset

Top-ranked women’s tennis player Iga Swiatek does not lose a whole lot in Paris. She has won the French Open each of the past three years and four times in the past five.

Swiatek’s lengthy winning streak in Paris ended with a surprising 6-2, 7-5 loss to China’s Zheng Qinwen in the semifinals. The 23-year-old from Poland had won 25 consecutive matches at Roland Garros.

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain became the youngest man to reach the singles semifinals at a Summer Games since Novak Djokovic in 2008. After beating American Tommy Paul, Alcaraz will next face Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, who knocked off three-time major runner-up Casper Ruud of Norway.

Djokovic overcame problems with his surgically repaired right knee and erased a big deficit in the second set to beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 7-6 (3). He is into the Olympic semifinals for the fourth time as he tries to collect his first gold medal.

Next up for Djokovic, a 37-year-old from Serbia with 24 Grand Slam titles, is Lorenzo Musetti of Italy on Friday. Musetti advanced with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Tokyo Games gold medalist Alexander Zverev of Germany.

Thursday also brought to an end the career of Andy Murray, who along with Britain partner Dan Evans was knocked out of doubles play with a loss to Americans Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul.

U.S. rowing gold

Liam Corrigan, Justin Best, Michael Grady and Nick Mead made a little history, winning the first U.S. rowing gold medal in the men’s four class since 1960. The U.S. held off New Zealand and defending world champion Britain, finishing in 5:49.03.

“It’s literally unbelievable,” Corrigan said. “I crossed the line, I thought I was going to have some kind of celebration, but I was just in disbelief, like my hands were on my head. It was just crazy.”

All four Americans were at the Tokyo Games three years ago but left without any medals. Corrigan, Best, Grady and Mead have been together since last season. The last time the U.S. won an Olympic medal of any color in men’s four rowing was in 2012 in London.