Simone Biles, at only 26, is one of the greatest athletes in American history. We’ve already known that for a while. Now she’s the most decorated gymnast ever, after winning the all-around title at the Gymnastics World Championships. This is her sixth all-around title. It’s her 27th world champion medal, and if you include her Olympic medals, she has 34 in all. That’s more than any other gymnast in history! When she was on the podium at the championships with her gold medal, and they played the national anthem, Simone started to cry. It made me tear up, too. We know she went through so much and endured challenging setbacks to get to this moment.
She’s the most decorated gymnast ever. She’s also the first female gymnast to win six all-around world titles.
Biles added those accolades to her extensive legacy when she won the all-around title at the 2023 Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium on Friday. Her latest victory came 10 years after she claimed her first world championship win in the same city at 16 years old.
That kind of longevity is hard to come by in the sport, and the 26-year-old is making it look easy.
This is her 27th world championship medal and 21st gold. Combined with her seven Olympic medals, Biles has a tally of 34. No male or female competitor has seen that much hardware over the sport’s two premier events.
She was previously tied with Belarusian Vitaly Scherbo for the record with 33.
A regular at the podium, she fought tears as she stood with her fellow competitors while the national anthem played.
Biles’ total score across the balance beam, floor, vault and uneven bars was 58.399 points. With that number, she beat Brazilian defending champion Rebeca Andrade by 1.633 points. Her U.S. teammate Shilese Jones snagged the bronze medal with 56.332 points.
She’s just remarkable. Watching her floor routine is completely exhilarating, even though she makes one small mistake, it doesn’t even matter because the rest is executed so flawlessly. I will always be awed by the fact that she manages to get so high in the air. This triumph comes after Simone took an extended break from gymnastics for nearly two years. The 2021 Tokyo Olympics were hard on her because of the media pressure, but to make matters worse she got the “twisties,” which is the gymnastics version of the yips, where a gymnast loses their muscle memory in the air. She withdrew from competition because that kind of muscle memory loss is super dangerous. I’m so glad she was able to work through that and regain her confidence. I bet she sweeps the Paris Olympics next year and takes home all the gold medals.
