Biles wins an unprecedented sixth all-around worlds title.
In her first international gymnastics competition since the Tokyo Olympics, Simone Biles wins a record-tying sixth global all-around title, maintaining her unbeaten return to the sport.
In her first international gymnastics competition since the Tokyo Olympics, Simone Biles easily claimed a record-tying sixth global all-around title, maintaining her unbeaten return to the sport.
In Antwerp, Belgium, Biles scored 58.399 points, edging Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, the world champion from the previous year, by 1.633.
Biles might have failed on any one of her four routines and yet prevailed, so to speak. The average victory margin for Biles in her prior Olympic and international all-around competitions was 1.388.
Shilese Jones, an American who won silver last year, claimed bronze, trailing Andrade by only 43 hundredths of a second.
Jones, 21, who finished in 10th place in the Tokyo Olympic Trials and was considering giving up professional gymnastics, solidified her position as the frontrunner to make the five-woman Olympic team.
Biles, who has been unbeaten in major all-around competition for a decade, shared the record for the most world all-around titles with Japan’s Kohei Uchimura. She has won all four of her all-around events since making a comeback after a two-year layoff.
After her opening vault, Biles withdrew from the Tokyo Olympic team final with the twisties. “I was so much more nervous for [Wednesday’s] team finals, just because that is when everything occurred, so I was a little bit traumatized from that,” she said. I checked out some quotes on my phone prior to the global team final. I practice things like breathing exercises and visualization.
The national anthem caused her eyes to become teary.
At age 26, she became the oldest medallist and Olympic or world women’s all-around champion since 1962. In addition, she set a record with 34 medals overall, one more than Larisa Latynina and Vitaly Scherbo.
According to the Gymternet, she has the top four all-around scores in the world for this Olympic cycle. She also had a chance to perform better on Friday.
Instead of using her gravity-defying Yurchenko double pike for her opening vault, Biles opted on the twisting Cheng, which carries lower difficulty points. She still managed a 15.1, which was her best score on that vault in her three attempts this week.
The one equipment where she is not the best in the world is the uneven bars, where she made a few minor errors. Her score on bars was her lowest of three routines at these worlds, however it was still a good 14.333.
She almost stumbled when mounting the balance beam, but she still managed to score 14.433, which is well in the midst of her qualification and team final beam scores.
Additionally, she tripped just before finishing her floor workout, missed an element, and seemed to giggle about it as she continued.
She uttered the words “I am so stressed out” just before her final grade was announced. “I am aware that my parents suffered a heart attack.”
Biles would have surpassed her record for the greatest victory margin at an Olympics or Worlds competition since the new scoring system was implemented in 2006 if she had replicated her floor score from Wednesday’s team final (15.166).
Coach Cecile Landi stated, “She still has issues. She is not flawless. I do not want anyone to believe it is simple. It is not even close.
British Gymnastics notified Jessica Gadirova’s withdrawal from Friday’s competition minutes before it started. Jessica Gadirova finished third last year and third in qualifying. As “a precautionary measure,” it was declared.
Then another gold candidate from France, Melanie de Jesus dos Santos, tumbled off bars during the opening rotation.
Individual apparatus finals (8 a.m. ET, both days, Peacock) wrap up the worlds on Saturday and Sunday.
Biles earned the right to take part in each of the four event finals: the vault and bars on Saturday, and the beam and floor on Sunday. On vault, beam, and floor, she qualified with the highest score.
With three medals, Biles will reach 30 for her career at the worlds, which may be the last worlds she competes in. With 23 world medals, the second-best gymnast in history.
Biles won her record-tying sixth individual all-around gold medal at the global championships on Friday in Antwerp, Belgium. She had earlier in the week assisted the American women’s team in winning a historic seventh straight world victory.
Less than a year before the 2024 Paris Olympics and two months after she made her competitive gymnastics comeback, Biles won her 27th world championship medal, including 21 golds. In all four of her all-around events this year, she has a perfect record.