Tokyo 2020: Sunisa Lee wins all-around gold after Biles’ withdrawal

The USA’s Sunisa Lee has won gold in the gymnastics all-around at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

She was watched in her triumph by defending champion Simone Biles, who had withdrawn from the event to prioritise her mental health.

Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade took the silver, while the Russian Olympic Committee’s Angelina Melnikova took the bronze. Team GB’s Jessica Gadirova became the first British woman to record a top-ten finish in the event, coming tenth.

Lee began decently on her relatively weaker apparatus, opening the final by sticking her double twisting Yurchenko vault for a score of 14.600. Andrade posted the initial highest score of 15.300, while Melnikova and fellow Russian Vladislavs Urazova remained tight to their rivals.

For much of the final, the challengers remained close to each other. Andrade pulled off her full difficulty bar routine, and Lee followed with the most difficult uneven bar routine in the world. Typically, the balance beam would help separate the competitors, but even then, they remained close.

So it was all down to the floor, and that was where the minor but decisive cracks started to show. Uraznova’s routine was not difficult, while Melnikova lost valuable tenths on a spin. Andrade twice stepped out of bans and failed to match her qualifying score, and then it was Lee’s turn. She performed a superb routine that scored 13.700, nearly three tenths higher than in qualifying, and it was enough to secure the gold.

The margins were incredibly close. Lee’s final score was 57.433, just ahead of Andrade’s 57.298. Melnikova took bronze with 57.199 – all three athletes finished with impressive and high scores.

American athletes have now won gold in the women’s gymnastics all-around in the last five Olympic Games, starting with Carly Patterson in 2004. The gold is also Lee’s second medal of the Tokyo 2020 Games, after she was part of the team that took silver in the women’s gymnastics team competition.