- Simone Biles and Suni Lee competed in the women's gymnastics all-around final at the Paris Olympics.
- Biles wore a blue leotard featuring over 10,000 crystals with stars and stripes on the sleeves.
- Lee's leotard featured a lace-inspired crystal pattern in a reference to Art Nouveau.
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Simone Biles and Suni Lee, both past Olympic gold medalists in women's all-around gymnastics, competed for the title once again at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Biles took home the gold, winning her ninth Olympic medal and cementing her status as the most decorated US gymnast of all time. Lee won the bronze medal.
Biles and Lee wore custom leotards designed by GK Elite, a sportswear company and official partner of USA Gymnastics. Here are six hidden details you might have missed in the designs.
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Simone Biles' leotard design, called "Luminous Legacy," gleamed with over 10,000 crystals.
The leotard included two shades of Swarovski crystals, light siam shimmer and majestic blue, which are exclusive to the 2024 Olympics, GK Elite said.
The lines on the bodice were designed to look like a corset in a nod to French fashion.
Jeanne Diaz, GK Elite's lead designer, told Business Insider that the design team also took inspiration from "superhero Wonder Woman armor" while creating this look.
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Sublimated stars and crystal lines on the sleeves offered an abstract take on the stars and stripes of the American flag.
Sublimation is a specialized print technique used to apply graphics to fabric using heat and pressure. It was first used in leotards at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
"That technique allows us to get really intricate details, really fine lines, without having to use any other more expensive or more stretch-restrictive surface techniques," Diaz said.
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Suni Lee's leotard, called "Elegance," featured a lace-inspired crystal pattern, referencing "the softer side of Parisian fashion," Diaz said.
The lace design is meant to evoke haute couture and the decorative, flowing lines of the Art Nouveau movement popularized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Diaz said.
She added that the pattern on Lee's mesh sleeves was printed on the fabric using sublimation.
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A lace-up design on the back was another tribute to Parisian corsets.
The faux corset was encrusted with crystals.
Her leotard was covered in over 5,000 crystals.
The front of the leotard featured flame- and diamond-shaped crystals.
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