Simone Biles claimed her sixth Olympic gold medal following a thrilling conclusion to the gymnastics individual all-round final in Paris on Thursday.

After spearheading the United States to gold in the women's team event, she retained the title she won eight years ago in Rio.

Biles' nine medals (six gold, one silver, two bronze) are two better than Shannon Miller, who won two golds, two silvers and three bronzes across the 1992 and 1996 Games.

"It is crazy I am in the conversation of the greatest of all time," Biles said. "I just think I’m still Simone Biles from Spring, Texas, who loves to flip."

Brazil's Rebecca Andrade finished second on Thursday to get silver and Sunisa Lee took the bronze in the first Olympic matchup of the past all-around champions.

Lee became the first gold medalist to return to the podium in the next Olympics since Romania's Nadia Comaneci won gold and then bronze in 1976 and 1980.

Biles started her quest for gold by scoring 15.766 on the vault, almost half a point better than the score she posted in the qualifying round on Sunday.

The American would relinquish her lead to Andrade after her slight mistake on the uneven bars, with Algeria's Kaylia Nemour posting a rotation-best 15.333.

But the reigning world champion would soon be back on top, producing an error-free routine on the balance beam to earn a score of 14.566, handing her an advantage heading into the floor exercise.

And as she did on Tuesday, Biles showed no signs of pressure and performed a routine packed with a series of stunning tumbles to clinch gold at a canter.

The win made her just the third woman to win two all-around golds and the oldest all-around champion since the Soviet Union's Mariya Gorokhovskaya, who won at the 1952 Games in Helsinki at age 30.