Simone Biles led the U.S. women’s gymnastics team to gold at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Belgium on Wednesday night and helped the team best Brazil by a narrow margin—just two months after returning to gymnastics following a two-year mental health break.
The 2023 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships took place in Antwerp, Belgium. (Photo by Naomi ... [+]
The team suffered an injury during the competition, resulting in Joscelyn Roberson being substituted for Leanne Wong, who competed alongside Biles, Shilese Jones and Skye Blakely—all of whom combined for 167.729 points to secure gold over Brazil and France.
Biles, who was the last to compete for the U.S. team, needed to score 12.967 points to claim victory over Brazil and showed out with a 15.166 point performance.
The U.S. women won by 2.199 points, a narrower margin than what was expected after a strong showing in qualifying, when Biles became the first woman to land the Yurchenko double pike in a qualification round Sunday, making the move renamed to the “Biles II.”
The win marks the team’s seventh consecutive team title at the gymnastics world championships and is the 26th world medal for Biles.
- That’s how many of Biles’ world championship medals are gold. The record-breaker has seven overall Olympic medals and 33 combined medals of all types at gymnastics' two biggest events, according to the Associated Press.
Biles now has two vaults and five skills named after her, according to Team USA.
The U.S. women’s seventh consecutive world title broke a tie with China’s men’s gymnastic team, which held the longest streak of consecutive team titles before Wednesday night. Biles, the team’s superstar fixture, returned to the sport in August after taking two years to address mental health struggles—a highly-publicized decision met with a mix of support and criticism. She last competed at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo before the break. Upon her return, ticket prices jumped 150% for the U.S. Classic—a qualifier for the national gymnastics championships. The average ticket price soared from an average of $86 to $170 for the event.
She’s Back: Simone Biles To Compete For First Time Since Walking Out Of Tokyo In 2021 (Forbes)
Simone Biles’ Return Sends Ticket Prices Soaring 150% For Saturday’s U.S. Classic Gymnastics Contest (Forbes)