Most all-around gold medals in gymnastics: USA star Simone Biles makes history at 2024 Olympics

Team USA posted three of the top four qualifying scores in the women's gymnastics all-around competition, but only two gymnasts could advance under the Olympic rules.

That pushed Jordan Chiles off the event roster and granted Simone Biles and Suni Lee a history-making opportunity at the 2024 Paris Games.

Biles seized the opportunity, earning her second gold medal in the women's all-around after winning the event at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Lee was stellar enough to take home the bronze after winning gold in the event at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Here's what to know about the history of the women's gymnastics all-around competition.

MORE: Simone Biles shuts down her critics with Olympic team gold in 2024

Most all-around gold medals in Olympic women's gymnastics

The Olympics first instituted the women's all-around competition at the 1952 Helsinki Games. Only two women had won the award more than once until Biles claimed her second on Thursday.

Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union was the first to achieve that feat. She took home all-around gold at the 1956 and 1960 Olympics before earning a silver-medal finish in 1964.

The 1964 Olympics saw Czechoslovakia's Vera Caslavska begin her reign atop the gymnastics world. She beat Latynina for gold at the 1964 Games and earned the same honors in 1968, beating two other Soviet gymnasts — Zinaida Voronina and Natalia Kuchinskaya — for the medal.

Since the 1972 Olympics, a different gymnast has won the all-around competition in every cycle until Biles broke that streak in 2024 after taking home gold in 2016.

By accomplishing that feat, Biles also broke a record for the largest-ever gap between all-around gold medal wins in the women's competition.

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Full list of Olympic women's gymnastics all-around winners

Biles and Lee are the only two gymnasts in 2024 who have won Olympic all-around gold. There's a good reason for that: the United States has dominated the Olympic all-around competition since 2004.

The country has now produced six consecutive all-around gold winners, starting with Carly Patterson in 2004 and most recently seeing Biles earn the honors at the 2024 Paris Games.

Below is a full look at the list of Olympic women's gymnastics all-around winners dating back to 1952.

* The Unified Team consisted of 12 of the 15 former Soviet Union republics that opted to compete together at the 1992 Olympics under a unified, non-Soviet banner. Gutsu went on to represent Ukraine in international competition.