She became the first female gymnast to win six all-around world championships and the most decorated.
At the Artistic Gymnastics global Championships, she won her 27th international medal and broke the Soviet Union’s Larisa Latynina’s world and Olympic medals record. Biles has 27 world championship medals, 21 gold, and seven Olympic medals.
Brazilian all-around world champion Rebeca Andrade took silver, while Biles’ colleague Shilese Jones earned bronze.
The global all-around podium had three Black gymnasts for the first time.
Gymnasts must compete on vault, uneven bars, balancing beam, and floor in the all-around final. A stuck landing on her first skill set the tone for Biles’ competition. Instead of her Yurchenko double pike vault, she executed a Cheng and got 15.100.
Biles then performed cleanly on uneven bars for 14.333. Biles will compete in the uneven bars final on Saturday despite not winning the qualifying round on the single equipment.
She wobbled at the start of her balancing beam routine but finished confidently. Biles required 12.901 to win the gold medal by just under a point over Jones and Andrade in the fourth and final rotation. She failed on a dancing move but nailed all her tumbling passes for 14.533.
Biles’ all-around success came two days after she led the U.S. ladies to their sixth straight gold. Team USA’s Joscelyn Roberson, who trained with Biles at the World Champions Centre in Spring, Texas, was injured in warmups and brought off the platform before the first rotation. Roberson looked to fall low while warming up for the tricky “Cheng,” which Biles also does.
“I felt like half of me was gone out there,” Biles told reporters of Roberson’s last-minute injury. “Everyone got a little frazzled… Our crew showed strength and bravery to persevere.”
Brazil won the silver medal, although the U.S. team ended more than two points ahead. Biles participated in all four events, led the final rotation, and performed the gold-winning floor routine. She scored 15.166 on Wednesday, the best floor score of the championships.
At 26, Biles became the oldest U.S. woman to win a world title.
Biles holds two gold medals from these global championships but faces tough competition. She made every final, including apparatus finals. Biles placed first in all-around, vault, floor exercise, and balancing beam and sixth in uneven bars.
Biles landed the Yurchenko double pike, the code of points’ first woman vault, in the qualifying round Sunday. As her second original vault, it will be termed the “Biles II” and has a difficulty score of 6.4, the highest in women’s gymnastics.
After pulling out of various events at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 due to “twisties,” she returned to international competition on Sunday.
Vault and uneven bar finals are on Saturday, balance beam and floor finals are on Sunday, and the tournament concludes on Sunday. All four events will air live on Peacock.
