The medals, and the colors of them, were irrelevant.

Yes, Simone Biles is leaving these world championships with a fistful of them, four of them gold. Her real prize, though, can’t be quantified on a scoreboard or a stat sheet. It’s how she feels, and the confidence she takes from returning to a place that, not all that long ago, she doubted she would.

Doubted she could.

“I had to prove to myself that I could still get out here, twist. (I wanted to) prove all the haters wrong, that I’m not a quitter,” Biles said Sunday night. “As long as I’m out there twisting again, having and finding the joy for gymnastics again, who cares?”

The world championships were Biles’ first meet since the Tokyo Olympics, where rising anxiety caused by lofty expectations on her and the isolation of COVID restrictions brought on a case of “the twisties.” Unable to tell where she was in the air and unwilling to risk her physical safety, she withdrew from all but one final.

Biles returned for the balance beam final and won a bronze medal.

But the twisties, and the emotional scars from them, lingered. Are still there, actually.

Even though she returned to the gym, Biles didn’t decide to compete until May. And those first competitions, the U.S. Classic and national championships, were individual ones.

Worlds was the first time since Tokyo she’d participate in a team final, which is where the twisties surfaced. It also would require her to be away from home, and the routines and many of the people that help keep her grounded, for several weeks.

Though Biles said she was nervous before the team final, she made it through. Better than that, she appeared relaxed and happy throughout the competition, seeming to enjoy being around the other gymnasts and getting showered with love from the crowds.

“She needed it for herself and she missed it,” coach Laurent Landi said. “Now I think she feels much better about what she has accomplished. And not just on the field of play but outside the gym as well, and to be able to perform the way she did.

“It’s the process that’s more important than the result.”

That was the point of it all.

Sure, her all-around title made Biles the most-decorated gymnast in history, male or female, and she now has a staggering 37 medals from the world championships and Olympics. But she now has good memories from here to diminish the bad ones from Tokyo.

Her experience in Tokyo will always be part of her. We are the sum total of our lives, and it’s impossible to appreciate our best moments without the context we have from our worst. But what happened in Tokyo no longer has to be at the forefront of Biles’ mind.

When she thinks of a team final, she can envision her spectacular floor routine, arguably the best she’s ever done. Which, given the sixth title she won on that event Sunday, is saying something. When she thinks of twisting, she can picture herself here in Antwerp, and how much fun she had doing it. When she thinks of the expectations, she can remember how ecstatic fans here were to have her back.

We all have doubts, Landi said. It’s what we do with them that matters, and Biles faced hers here and came out stronger.

“If you keep remembering what happened in Tokyo, it’s not good for you. So you want to take that away from your brain. It’s just a fluke,” Landi said. “I think emotionally and mentally, she can handle it better than she did. Because now you know that (this performance) can happen. Before you didn’t know, so you need to protect yourself against all of this.”

Biles is hesitant to talk too much about next summer’s Paris Olympics. She said in a TODAY show interview last month “that’s the path I would love to go,” but not looking too far ahead has worked well for her so far in this comeback. So, too, prioritizing herself.

Biles has been at this long enough to know people will see what she did at these worlds and start putting her on all of the podiums in Paris. But that’s them, not her. She’s just happy to be doing gymnastics again and even happier to be having fun doing gymnastics again.

“As long as I get out there, do those routines again, it’s a win in my book,” Biles said. “It doesn’t matter if I end up on the podium or not.”

The medals are nice. The peace of mind she won here is even more precious.

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.”

American gymnastics star, Simone Biles, has clinched a new title as the world’s most decorated gymnast of all time.

The 26-year-old athlete set this new record during the 2023 World Gymnastics Championships which was held in Antwerp, Belgium.

The gymnast gave several stunning performances during the game, including her historic Yurchenko double pike vault performance on Monday. As the first woman to land the complicated routine, she was greeted with applause from the crowd and had the routine named after her.

On Friday, the Olympian extended her record as the highest all-around title holder after she clinched her sixth. She scored a total of 58.399 points for her balance beam, floor, vault and uneven bars performance. Notably, Biles won her first all-around title ten years ago, at the age of 16 in the same city.

The Texas native currently holds 7 Olympic and 27 World Championship medals placing her as the most decorated gymnast in the world in both male and female categories

She had earlier tied with her Belarusian counterpart, Vitaly Scherbo, who had a total of 33 medals.

The United States team also successfully defended their title and won the championships for the seventh consecutive year on Wednesday.

Speaking of her win on Friday, Biles told reporters, “Actually, I had something in my eye today that I couldn’t get out, I swear it’s true. But I was emotional because 10 years ago I won my first worlds and now we’re back here.”

Biles’ winning streak comes after a downtime at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. During the competition, she had to pull out of several games due to medical and mental health issues.

Simone Biles’ remarkable comeback in 2023 has cemented her status as one of the “greatest of all time” in the world of sports. She has had back-to-back victories in the women’s qualifications at the World Championships and the women’s team final at the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp. Biles has graced and aced the stage leaving her fans in awe. However, her favorite fan seems to be missing all the action.

Back in Houston, more than 5,000 miles away from Antwerp, Ronni Biles aka Baby Biles, has been diligently supporting her aunt in the most adorable way. Just a few weeks ago, Simone and Simone’s sister-in-law, Sammi Biles, shared a heartwarming picture of Ronni. She wore a matching leotard with her aunt. It was the same as the one worn at the National Championships. Now, as her beloved Aunt “TT” continues to make history in Antwerp, Baby Biles has shared yet another heart-warming surprise that has set the gymnastics community abuzz

In a recent Instagram story, Sammi Biles posted a video of Baby Biles in her crib, playfully engaging with her dad, Ron Biles II. Two colorful rings, the same ones used in men’s gymnastics as an apparatus, dangled above her crib. Baby Biles, attempted to lift herself up on these rings, a sight that touched the hearts of many. Sammi accompanied the video with a touching caption, “watching TT & wanting to be like her,” tagging Biles.

In her subsequent story, she shared another video, still in the crib with the rings, and added, “Covid may have taken over our household, but little miss is a fighter.” This update referred to recent health concerns as Baby Biles had to be taken to the ER due to symptoms of the “cold, flu, rsv season.” Sammi also expressed her pride in TT, Biles, Joscelyn Roberson, and Cécile Landi for their dedication and remarkable success, giving a special shout-out to the WCC team. This video came shortly after Simone Biles, part of Team USA, led the charge in Antwerp during the World Championships Team Finals, securing the gold.

Team USA women take on the world

Team USA women secured their seventh consecutive women’s team world title with a total score of 167.729 points, beating Brazil and France. Biles showcased her mastery, scoring high in the vault, bars, and beam, ending with a remarkable 15.166 on the floor.

Biles, the undisputed queen, now has 26 world championship medals, equaling Vitaly Scherbo’s record. Her journey in Antwerp continues as she aims for her sixth All-Around World Championships title on October 6 and fans await her magic yet again.

Simone Biles has done it yet again, clinching her 20th gold medal at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championship and leading the U.S. women’s team to their historic 7th consecutive victory.

There is no question that Simone Biles is the greatest gymnast that has ever set foot on the mat. Her domination in the sport has been unparalleled, and she has earned every bit of praise she has received as a gymnast.

However, there’s a solid argument to be made that she isn’t just the GOAT of gymnastics, but truly the greatest athlete of all time. Yes, I know, it’s a subjective title, comparing sports is like comparing apples and oranges and people will argue about who deserves that title the most. But hear me out before putting Michael Jordan or Muhammad Ali or Jim Thorpe up against the 4-foot 8-inch wonder that is Simone Biles.

Here are 5 reasons she deserves the GOAT title:

1. She has dominated her sport with the winningest record of all time

This is the easy argument, of course, and one that could be used for any athlete who holds the most gold medals and the most medals overall in their sport. Let’s just see this as the foundation of the GOAT house that Simone built.

Biles has now won 26 world championship medals (20 gold, three silver and three bronze) and seven Olympic medals. That puts her at the top of women’s gymnastics historical record and has her tied with Belarus’ Vitaly Scherbo for most gymnastics medals, male or female, earned on the world stage.

2. She can do things no one else in her sport can do

There’s winning championships, and then there’s pushing your sport forward by inventing new moves or succeeding in feats no one has ever attempted, much less achieved, before.

Biles has done that, not once, not twice, not thrice, but a whopping five times. This single gymnast has five official moves named after her in the international rule book (one on balance beam, two on floor exercise and two on vault). She is pushing the boundaries of the sport like no one else ever has.

Every sport has had individuals who excel at a unique skill. Many of those individuals aren’t also world champions. Most of them don’t have multiple moves that bear their name because no one else has ever done them. Biles has done it all.

3. She stands out as an individual competitor and as a team leader

Gymnastics is both an individual sport and a team sport, and Biles has proven her skills in both. As an individual competitor, obviously, Biles is No. 1. But she has also led the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics team to victory time and time again.

Biles’ teammates praised her leadership skills after she backed out of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 (which we’ll get to in a moment). Though she was no longer competing herself, she stood on the sidelines and became her teammates’ best cheerleader. Her teammates and coaches said that meant the world, and Biles’ unwavering encouragement and support for her fellow gymnasts helped propel them to their own medal-winning performances.

To be able to dominate at the highest level as an individual and be an effective team leader is the mark of an exceptional athlete. Biles does both and makes it look easy.

4. She faced a devastating setback in her sport and came back on top

It’s not easy to maintain the status of being “the best” at a sport. Being the best and then having a major setback disrupt your career is even more difficult. Overcoming that setback and returning not only to a high level of competition but jumping back up to the very top is something only GOATs do.

Biles did it. After getting the dreaded “twisties” at the Tokyo Olympics, Biles did the right thing and dropped out of the competition. (The twisties cause a gymnast to lose their sense of place in the air, creating both a frustrating and incredibly dangerous situation.) She could have called it quits then and no one would have blamed her.

But she didn’t. She came back. And unlike some other star athletes who have pushed past their prime and lost some of their competitive edge, Biles is slaying once again, winning world titles like she was born for it.

She balances it with wisdom, but her competitive spirit is unstoppable.

5. She is well past retirement age and still dominating in her sport

Biles is 26 years old, which isn’t old by most measures, but she’s a bit of a grandma in the world of gymnastics. The average age for elite female gymnasts to retire is 22. There are other competitive gymnasts who are older than Biles, but they aren’t up there on the world championship podium with her. The main reason gymnasts retire so early is the wear and tear gymnastics puts on their bodies. Biles continually pushes her body to do what no one else can do, and she’s still going strong.

Her ability is unparalleled but her longevity is equally impressive. Peak time varies by sport, of course, but for a gymnast to be this dominant for this long is an incredible accomplishment.

As one teammate, Joscelyn Roberson, was downed by a shock injury in the warm-ups and others were tense under the pressure of international competition, Simone Biles’s first final back on Wednesday night gave an appropriate demonstration of the more underrated qualities that have made her so successful for so long.

Biles is certainly the best gymnast in the world, but the 26-year-old’s success is also driven by the mental strength that has allowed her to win so consistently and under so much pressure. When her teammates needed her, she was there. Biles’s all-around total in the team final was 58.732, 1.633 points higher than the second-best performer and she closed out the night with one of her best-ever floor routines.

On Friday Biles will try to win the world all-around title for a sixth time, a competition in which she remains unbeaten since her debut in Antwerp a decade ago. Between her scores in the qualification round and the team final – by far the two highest international all-around scores of this Olympic quad – and the strong mental state she appears to be in, Biles is the prohibitive favourite to maintain her dominance.

The question is whether anyone will come close enough to at least put her under pressure. The defending champion, Rebeca Andrade, is clearly the most capable. Andrade’s trajectory remains one of the most satisfying in the sport’s recent history. Despite the immense talent she clearly held as a junior, her potential was constantly stunted by injuries as she tore her anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL) on three separate occasions between 2015 and 2019.

By 2019, there were significant doubts about whether Andrade would ever be healthy enough to thrive. Instead, she returned just in time in 2021 to enjoy an incredible breakout Olympics in Tokyo, winning gold on vault and silver in the all-around, which have catapulted her to greater success. The world all-around title followed last year and on Wednesday she led Brazil to a historic team silver medal. In Biles’s absence since Tokyo, she has been the gymnast of this period.

If Biles has taken women’s gymnastics to impossible heights that few could have ever imagined, Andrade is the type of gymnast that many fans dreamed of. She combines her great power, amplitude, form, technique and grace across all four apparatuses with boundless charisma. If the 24-year-old competes at her very best on Thursday, Andrade is capable of scoring up to around 58, a huge score, but one that would still rest on mistakes from Biles in order for her to be competitive.