Simone Biles won the gold medal in the individual all-around gymnastics final in Rio Thursday evening, recovering from second place– where she found herself halfway through the event–to remain the definitive champion. Her US teammate Aly Raisman won silver.

Simone Biles Takes Gold, Aly Raisman Silver In Gymnastics All-Around In Rio Olympics

The two Americans’ individual victories come two days after they won a second consecutive gold medal for the U.S. women’s gymnastics team all-around. But on Thursday, they were up against each other, as well as 22 of the world’s top gymnasts.

After the first half of Thursday’s rotations were complete, Biles was still in second place, trailing Russia’s Aliya Mustafina 30.866 to 30.832, while Raisman followed closely behind in third. Nevertheless, Biles finished off strong, delivering the highest-scoring performances of the day on her last two turns. Raisman followed suit, scoring second-highest.

The final scores for the top three were 62.198 for Biles; 60.098 for 22-year-old Raisman; and 58.665 for 21-year-old Mustafina.

Biles, 19, now joins Mary Lou Retton, Carly Patterson, Nastia Liukin and London 2012 champion Gabby Douglas as American all-around winners.

Victory in this event typically brings lucrative endorsements and widespread admiration. Standing at 4 feet 9 inches, with size 5 feet, Biles’ accomplishments thus far seem even more impressive.

In the individual all-around, four groups of gymnasts rotate around the arena to the different sections of the event–and the uneven bars, which neither Biles nor Raisman specialize in, were in the first half of their rotation. Their group started on the vault and finished on the balance beam and the floor exercise.

First came the Amanar vault in which the gymnast performs a round-off onto the board, followed by a back handspring onto the table. She then does two-and-a-half twists before a blind landing.

Per usual, Biles soared higher and farther than anyone else, though she made her landing with a big step. It was still enough to earn her the top score of the day. Raisman also finished well on her Amanar.

However, after the uneven bars, Biles found herself in an unfamiliar place: second. a strong showing by Mustafina the 2012 champion in bars, and an average one by Biles put the Russian up by a small margin. Raisman, meanwhile, fell to fourth.

The bars is Biles’ weakest event, but her drop in the standings after that did not cause the three-time world champion to lose her focus. She appeared momentarily nervous on the balance beam, wobbling at one point. Nevertheless, she made a great landing. After Mustafina over-rotated her full turn, had a few balance checks and left out a front aerial. Biles was back in front, and Raisman moved into third.

The competition finally ended with the floor exercise. Biles’s first pass is a full-twisting double layout, and she followed that with the move for which she is the namesake, the “Biles:” a double layout with a half-twist, then a single leap. Her third and four passes were just as incredible. One of her coaches, Aimee Boorman, seemed to be crying as Biles came off the floor. Her final score was 15.933, the highest of the day on any part of the competition.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – AUGUST 11: Gold medalist Simone Biles of the United States poses for photographs after the medal ceremony for the Women’s Individual All Around on Day 6 of the 2016 Rio Olympics at Rio Olympic Arena on August 11, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Gabby Douglas became the focus of outrage early Wednesday after she and the rest of the US women’s gymnastics team won gold in the all-around on Tuesday evening.

Gabby Douglas Apologizes

During the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner in the medal ceremony at the Rio Olympic Arena, four of the five members of the US team were shown placing their hands on their hearts. The only one who wasn’t was Douglas, who simply stood, arms at her sides, taking in the immensity of the scene. She also seemed more serious and seemed to slouch more, according to some.

Social media immediately lit up with scores of comments from fans calling out the 20-year-old for being irreverent, disrespectful, and even unpatriotic for not performing the gesture.

Others, however, lauded her for what they interpreted as a protest. One person commended her for what he believed was a statement, exactly two years after Michael Brown was shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

Douglas eventually took to Twitter herself to respond to the comments, saying she was ‘overwhelmed’–which is arguably understandable for someone her age to feel that way after winning an Olympic gold medal, with millions of fans watching her both live and at home in front of TV screens. She did not claim to be protesting anything. Instead, she simply tweeted:

“In response to a few tweets I saw tonight, I always stand at attention out of respect for our country whenever the national anthem is played. I never meant any disrespect and apologize if I offended anyone. I’m so overwhelmed at what our team accomplished today and overjoyed that we were able to bring home another gold for our country!”

It seems as if Douglas gave a very well-thought-out response. And yet, many still appear unwilling to forgive her. She did not seem to show any sort of emotion during the playing of the anthem, her expression seemingly blank.

Several hours after Douglas’ win on Tuesday night, Michael Phelps nearly cried, then laughed during the end of the anthem following his 200-meter butterfly victory.

Phelps later explained he was laughing at his friends who, as part of a tradition followed by Baltimore Orioles fans, shouted the word “O!” the second time it appears in the anthem. His explanation was accepted and even embraced because he seemed emotional and had his hand over his heart the entire time.

One could debate at length whether or not this is an example of a double-standard. Clearly, not everyone truly agrees on exactly how one should behave during the playing of the national anthem, or on what is considered disrespectful/unpatriotic. However, one can also argue that incidents like the one Douglas was involved in should not take more importance over the athletic accomplishments athletes like her reach during competitive events like the Olympics.

“When it comes to Olympics athlete celebrities, a word to the wise — be careful what you do on the medal stand, you can alienate a lot of your customer base,” said Mark Dyreson, Penn State professor and Olympic scholar.

An official from the US Olympic Committee stated that national-anthem protocol is not included as part of their Olympic athlete orientation, which, given our freedom of expression, makes sense.

“I’m glad we don’t mandate how our athletes should look in any sort of way,” Dyreson said. “In the United States, free speech trumps all.”

Douglas is not the first time an American Olympian has been criticized for being “disrespectful” during the national anthem.

There was the men’s track relay team that clowned on the podium during the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Before that, there was the infamous moment in 1972 when track star Dave Wottle forgot to remove his signature ball cap during the entire national anthem.

In both instances, athletes were criticized for committing probably the only true podium crime, that of not taking it seriously.

One things remain certain, nonetheless: Douglas seems to have handled this backlash very well.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – AUGUST 09: (R to L) Gold Medalists Simone Biles, Gabrielle Douglas, Lauren Hernandez, Madison Kocian and Alexandra Raisman of the United States stand on the podium for the national anthem at the medal ceremony for the Artistic Gymnastics Women’s Team Final on Day 4 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Rio Olympic Arena on August 9, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)