Last updated on .From the section Gymnastics
American Simone Biles has become the most decorated gymnast in history after winning her second gold medal at the World Gymnastics Championships.
After helping the United States to a record seventh consecutive team title earlier this week, the 26-year-old won all-around gold in Belgium on Friday.
Her total of 34 world and Olympic medals is more than any other gymnast, male or female.
Biles took gold with a score of 58.399 points.
She finished ahead of defending champion Rebeca Andrade of Brazil (56.766), while Biles' American team-mate Shilese Jones took bronze with a score of 56.332.
It continued Biles' impressive return to international competition, with the Antwerp event her first since taking a break from the sport two years ago to work on her mental health.
This triumph was her sixth all-around world title to take her overall tally to 27 world medals, which includes 21 golds.
She could extend that over the weekend where she will aim to make the podium in four other events in the apparatus finals.
Biles' impressive form comes with less than 10 months to go until the Olympics in Paris.
Great Britain's 2022 world floor champion, Jessica Gadirova, dropped out of the all-around competition before it got under way, with British Gymnastics confirming she was withdrawn as a "precautionary measure".
Alice Kinsella took Gadirova's place and finished seventh with a score of 54.032, while team-mate Ondine Achampong was 13th.
Kinsella admitted the late call-up came as a shock, saying: "I only went [out] to do little bits and bobs like stretching, conditioning, and then I went off to get my foot rubbed, then my coach came over said, 'Alice, you need to get your leotard on straight away.'
"I was a bit stressed, I didn't really know what to do or say to anyone."
Gayfetus on October 7th, 2023 at 18:33 UTC »
And she added to that total today by winning vault silver during event finals!
Here's one of her many stunning performances during these championships, when she sealed team gold for the US women with this floor routine.
Here's when she landed the Yurchenko double pike in qualifications (it's the first vault she does), which meant that it's now officially called the Biles II on vault. She now has 5 eponymous skills in the code of points, and 3 of them stand alone as the most difficult skill on each of their respective apparatuses.
Simone has now won all the major competitions in her first season since taking time off after the Tokyo Olympics! And she still has beam and floor finals to go tomorrow!
Other uplifting news from this competition:
For the first time ever, we have 3 black gymnasts on the same all-around podium at a World/Olympic competition! They are Brazil's Rebeca Andrade, the US' Simone Biles, and the US' Shilese Jones.
In addition, Simone is the oldest women's all-around champion at Worlds since 1962.
Black women were also key to each of the three countries who wound up on the women's team finals podium! Simone and Shilese were key to the US' gold, as they did all 4 apparatuses. Brazil won their first team medal, a silver, with their MVP Rebaca Andrade, while her teammate Flavia Saraiva also did all 4 events. France had Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos and Marine Boyer, who also did every event, with Mélanie contributing the most points.
Earlier today, Algeria's Kaylia Nemour became the first African gymnast to win a medal at worlds, when she won silver on the uneven bars finals!
And for a sport that has a very unhealthy history of discarding and using up female athletes as they age, we saw some signs of progress as well:
For the first time since 1964, every woman on a World/Olympics all-around podium is over the age of 20.
Brazil's Jade Barbosa, age 32, returned after years of struggling with injuries, helping to score that historic team silver for Brazil. She last won a world medal 13 years ago, which may be the longest gap between medaling at a world championships in this sport!
InformalPenguinz on October 7th, 2023 at 14:52 UTC »
That's cuz she's a bad ass. Proud of her for persevering through the hell she went through.
gixk on October 7th, 2023 at 14:16 UTC »
This is definitely my old man brain talking, but it's a nice change of pace to see news about someone from a humble background putting in genuine time and effort towards impressive achievements, as opposed to someone becoming famous for superficial reasons, which is all to common nowadays.