The presence of Simone Biles was electrifying as she graced the arena in Antwerp. Thousands of fans roared in awe, welcoming their gymnastics queen back to the world stage after nearly two years. Opening the night with great poise, hoping to move past her previous challenges, the Olympian legend, scored a solid 14.400 on uneven bars. Next on the balance beam, she earned a commendable score of 14.566. On-the-floor exercise, her score of 14.633 towered over her competitors, showcasing her dominance.

Family of Simone Biles missing their star

In a recent Instagram story, Adria Biles, Simone’s sister, attempted to video call her from America. The screenshot showed a picture of Adria’s screen, affectionately calling her “Sistaboo” Simone. But the screen only revealed Adria’s bemused expression as Biles remained unavailable.

ANTWERP, Belgium — Simone Biles advanced to every individual final at the world gymnastics championships, and she earned the top qualifying score in the all-around, as well as on three of the four apparatuses

Simone Biles, one of the most celebrated gymnasts in the world, made an outstanding comeback to the sport in 2023 after an absence of almost two years. She participated in the U.S. Olympic Trials, where she won a place on the USA team for the World Championship. In doing so, she became the first American to participate in six world championships.

At the World Championships held in Eindhoven, Netherlands, Simone Biles proved her mettle yet again by showcasing her exceptional skills and abilities on the mat. In the qualifiers for the vault competition, she achieved a remarkable feat by performing the “Yurchenko Double Pike,” a challenging skill that no other female gymnast had ever accomplished. This move involves performing a roundoff onto the springboard, a back handspring onto the vault table, and then executing two complete backward flips with her legs kept straight until her feet hit the mat.

Simone’s achievement was so remarkable that the move will now be named after her, following the tradition of naming new skills after the athlete who achieves them. This is already the second vault skill named after Simone Biles, with the first being the “Biles” move she performed during the 2018 World Championships. Her latest achievement will be known as “Biles II,” it has already been recognized as one of the most difficult vaults ever performed in women’s gymnastics.

Biles has had five different skills named after her – two on the vault, two on the floor, and one on the beam. The most challenging jump is the “Yurchenko double pike,” which has never been awarded before and is scored with 6.4 points.

Biles scored 15,266 points on the vault and a total of 58,865 in the all-around competition.

Simone Biles announced her return to the world stage in some style on Sunday as she sits in first place in the women’s all-around qualification at the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and became the first woman to land the Yurchenko double pike vault at an international competition.

Biles stepped up to the vault, launched high into the air, twisting in angular blue blur, and landed with just a single backwards step to make history.

That feat ensured the skill will now be named the Biles II in honor of the 19-time world champion, making it her fifth named element.

A high-difficulty skill historically only done by men, the element is a roundoff onto the springboard, followed by a back handspring onto the vaulting table, ending with a piked double backflip into the air to landing.

She posted an all-around score of 58.865 to sit in first place at the end of her qualifying session, and in a commanding position to reach all four individual finals and the all-around final later in the week.

After her qualifying round, the 26-year-old sits in first place on three pieces of apparatus – floor, vault and balance beam – and second on the uneven bars, behind teammate Shilese Jones.

The US as a team posted an impressive qualifying score of 171.395, and though most other teams are yet to complete their own qualifying round, it seems virtually assured that the Americans will reach the team final given that their total bested the 167.263 that saw them qualify in first place last year.

It is Biles’ first competition back on the world stage since the Tokyo 2020 Games when she pulled out of several events suffering from what is known as the “twisties” – a mental block causing a gymnast to lose track of their positions in midair.

Since then, she has once again displayed all the qualities that have carried her to the pinnacle of the sport, coming back to win a record eighth national all-around title.

And by competing in Antwerp, Biles became the first woman to represent the US at six artistic world championships.

Meanwhile, the US men’s gymnastics team secured its spot in the team competition at next year’s Olympic Games in Paris by qualifying for the team final in second place behind Japan.