Olympic gymnastics: Simone Biles takes gold in all-around, becomes first American gymnast to win twice

Biles’ margin of victory on Andrade was just over a point, the equivalent of a fall, but she said she felt unfamiliar levels of stress with Andrade hot on her heels.

“I don’t want to compete with Rebecca no more,” Biles said of her Brazilian rival, with a chuckle. “I’m tired. She’s way too close. I’ve never had an athlete that close, so it definitely put me on my toes and brought out the best athlete in myself.”

Lee said she has “never seen her so stressed.” Biles was originally going to perform a safer vault, but decided she needed to “bring out the big guns” — her eponymous “Biles II” vault — to beat Andrade.

Biles has not announced her retirement from the sport, but added, “I’m gonna hand it to her now — she can have the rest.”

After narrowly clinching her second consecutive Olympic all-around medal, Lee said she didn’t think she’d be back on the podium.

“I really didn’t think that I would even get on the podium,” she said. “I went out there and I just told myself not to put any pressure on myself because I didn’t want to think about the past Olympics or even trying to like prove to anybody anything.”

The only person Lee wanted to prove anything to? Herself.

“I didn’t think that I could, but it is taken a lot,” she said, referring to a kidney disease that threatened to hamper her Olympic comeback. “I’m so grateful that I had my coaches and, you know, having Simone here today definitely helped me a lot because we were both freaking out.”