Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast in the history of the sport on Friday after winning her sixth individual all-around title at the world championships.

To celebrate her accomplishment, Biles won another medal.

On Saturday, Biles competed in the vault, and nearly added another gold medal to her collection despite suffering a fall on one of her two attempts.

Biles’ first vault was a Yurchenko double pike, now known officially as the Biles II. After slightly over-rotating, Biles hit the ground. She bounced back quickly for her second vault, which she landed clean.

Biles finished with an average score of 14.549 between her two vaults, which ultimately put her in second behind Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, who scored 14.750.

But the battle for gold was even closer than their scores made it appear. During her first attempt, Biles elected to have her coach Laurent Landi stand at the mat for safety reasons. This decision came with a half-point deduction, which Biles knowingly took.

The difficulty scores of Biles’s vault attempts are so high that she comes into competitions with a huge advantage. The Biles II comes with a difficulty score of 6.4. According to The Washington Post, three of Biles’s teammates compete with vaults that have a difficulty score of 5.0.

Coming into the competition, Biles could take the half-point deduction without giving up the majority of her advantage in difficulty score. But looking at the final standings, with Biles coming up 0.201 points short, it’s not hard to figure out how a half-point deduction impacted her result.

Still, even with her fall, Biles took home silver, extending her record medal count to 28 at worlds.

Simone Biles fell short of further burnishing her status as the greatest gymnast of all time last night, coming fifth in the uneven bars finals at the World Gymnastics Championships.

The result was immaterial to most fans, following as it did her all-around gold win on Friday which capped an astonishing comeback after a two-year career hiatus to protect her mental health. Her total haul of 34 world and Olympic medals eclipses any other gymnast, male or female, making her the most decorated in history.

Bars is considered Biles’ weaker event with experts agreeing it was impressive that she even reached the final in Belgium yesterday.

The scenes were a far cry from those witnessed during the Tokyo Olympics two years ago when she stunned the world by withdrawing from four of five finals, including the team and all-around events. Biles blamed it on “the twisties,” the sudden onset of a mental block that in gymnastics can cause a person to lose their sense of where they are in the air.

After her withdrawal from the Olympics, a handful of critics ranging from Fox News presenters to online trolls derided Biles as a “quitter” who had let her team down for selfish reasons. Weeks later, her challenges appeared compounded when Biles broke down in tears when, appearing before a senate judiciary committee in Washington, she shared her story of being sexually abused by disgraced US gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.

“I don’t want another young gymnast, or Olympic athlete, or any individual to experience the horror that I and hundreds of others have endured before.

during and continuing to this day in the wake of the Larry Nassar abuse,” said Biles, her voice choking as she articulated how those responsible for protecting young gymnasts had profoundly failed.

For some observers, the experiences seemed too much even for a competitor used to battling. Biles has recounted eating cereal with water because her family couldn’t afford milk and being taken into foster care in Columbus, Ohio, as her mother fought addiction. She was later adopted by her maternal grandparents in Texas.

After helping the US to a record seventh consecutive team title at the world championships in Antwerp earlier last week, Biles secured her second gold medal on Friday – a decade after she won her first all-around world title as a 16-year-old in the same city.

On the podium the gymnast was visibly emotional. “I was emotional because 10 years (ago) I won my first worlds, now we’re back here.

“It means everything to me, the fight, everything that I’ve put in to get back to this place to feel comfortable and confident enough to compete.”

Having regained her place at the highest level, the Texan is already understood to be preparing for the Paris Olympics, which are fewer than 10 months away. Officially, however, the gymnast has repeatedly stressed that she is taking things one competition at a time.

Lauded not only for her comeback ability, Biles is also admired for her outspokenness and willingness to speak out against injustices: telling people to vote, arguing that electricity and clean water should be more accessible and calling out violence against Asian Americans.

During the protests that followed George Floyd’s killing in 2021, Biles stood up for Black Lives Matter, further bolstering her appeal to her legions of fans, many of whom were born after she began her senior career in 2013.

Earlier this year, Biles married NFL star Jonathan Owens in Texas, a year after getting engaged on Valentine’s Day.

Biles’s competition continues today with the balance beam and floor exercise finals.

The superstar Brazilian capitalised after Biles couldn’t control her first vault. Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat claimed floor title. Kaylia Nemour took first ever medal for Africa, while Rhys McClenaghan defended title ahead of USA’s Khoi Young.

Rebeca Andrade of Brazil won her second World vaulting title Saturday (7 October) at the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, edging out USA star Simone Biles, who flew backward out of her first vault.

The 24-year-old Brazilian averaged a 14.750 for the gold with Biles at 14.549. Andrade is the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion on the event, and took her first World title on the event in 2021.

It was Biles’ 28th medal at the World Championships and her 35th major career medal, the record.

Andrade was the final’s last competitor. Nearly sticking her Cheng (round off onto the board, front handspring, front layout one-and-a-half twist off) first vault for a massive 15.000. Needing better than 14.098 to take the gold, she boomed a double-twisting Yurchenko, earning a 14.500.

As the duo waited for the final score to flash, they sat side-by-side, chatting. When confirmation came on the Sportpaleis’ massive scoreboards, Andrade and Biles clasped hands before Andrade’s celebreation kicked into high gear running to coach Francisco Porath who was hold a Brazilian flag for his pupil.

“I’m really happy about this for Brazil, it’s another gold,” Andrade told Olympics.com afterward. “I don’t know if I expected it in my mind, of course, we always try to win, but the principal goal is to do my part.”

2020 Olympic bronze medallist Yeo Seo-jeong claimed her first World medal on the event in third (14.416). The medal is also a first for the Republic of Korea on the event at Worlds.

Biles went for her daring Yurchenko double pike as the final’s first competitor but had too much power to control and jumped to her back on the landing. The vault, now called the Biles II in the sport’s rule book, carries such a high difficulty score, 6.4, that she still earned a 14.433 for it.

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.”