Simone Biles, widely regarded as one of, if not the best, gymnastics athlete in history, successfully won her 20th World Championship while helping the US Women achieve its 7th consecutive gymnastics team title.
The American team includes Biles, Shilese Jones, and Leane Wong, who combined 167.729 points to edge out a win against Brazil and France. They won by a margin of 2.199 points as the final proved to be a tighter contest than anyone could have anticipated and came after the US team showed a dominant performance in qualifying.
Simone Biles World Championship
Since 2011, the US Women have won gold in the team events at every world championship, including a team competition. Their victory in Antwerp broke a tie with the Chinese men and made Biles the most decorated female gymnast ever.
With this win, Biles now has 26 world championship medals to go with her seven Olympic medals and the 2016 Olympic title. The gymnast's combined 33 medals at the sport's two biggest events are one more than what Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union was able to achieve, as per CBS News.
Biles could record 14.800 in the vault, 14.466 on the bars, and 14.300 on the beam in the first three apparatus. The 26-year-old wonder athlete was the final US team member to compete in the floor section of the competition, knowing that a big performance would win another gold medal for herself and her team.
The athlete could smile throughout her routine as she oozed confidence while performing twists and turns with elan and barely placing a foot in the wrong spot. The judges gave her stellar performance a score of 15.166.
In a congratulatory message on X, formerly known as Twitter, USA Gymnastics wrote that the US Women's team was in a "league of its own." Biles' win also ties her with Belarusian Vitaly Scherbo with the most overall medals across the Olympics and the world championships.
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US Women's Gymnastics Team
The momentous times for Biles come after she returned to where she made her world championships debut in 2013. At the time, she won all-around and floor exercise gold and got vault silver and beam bronze, according to CNN.
Biles made history again on Sunday after finishing first in the women's all-around qualification due to becoming the first woman to land the Yurchenko double pike vault. It is an extremely high-difficulty skill that was historically only done by men of the sports.
In a statement, Biles said that the team she performed with throughout this year had the most grit, courage, and fight. She noted they had so many emotions throughout the day, adding that it was not the USA's best day.
During the championship, many athletes fell during their performances, including some on the US Women's team. But in the end, Brazil, China, France, and Italy battled for the remaining medals, trailing the American team, said The Guardian.
