Simone Biles is undoubtedly the greatest gymnast of all time. In the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, she had a tough time as she struggled with her mental health. Gymnastics fans wondered if she would ever return to the sport she dominated for so many years. She chose to come back to international competition, rather fittingly, in Antwerp, where she won her first World titles ten years ago.
In some ways, Biles was the same gymnast she has always been. She performed insanely difficult routines and executed them to a very high standard. She supported her teammates during their routines. The main difference was the unbridled joy on her face, particularly in her floor routines. It seemed like she returned to gymnastics because it is what she loves to do and consequently she has let go of the pressure weighing on her. Biles also discussed how beneficial attending regular therapy sessions has been for her.
Biles added another four gold medals to her overflowing collection as she led the American Team to gold and individually won titles the All-around, the beam and the floor. She did not have everything her own way though. In the vault final, she first performed her own skill, a double pike somersault, and sat down on landing. Brazilian gymnast and 2022 World All-around Champion Rebecca Andrade did two brilliant vaults with two fantastic landings, and rightly won the gold. Incredibly, Biles held on to the silver medal due to the huge difficulty of her two vaults.
At the beginning of the men’s All-around final, it looked like Japanese star Daiki Hashimoto might succumb to the pressure from his country. He stumbled through his floor routine and appeared to be very stressed, but he managed to regain his composure. The second half of the competition included two of Hashimoto’s best apparatus, the vault and the parallel bars, and he climbed up the leaderboard. The final apparatus for Hashimoto’s group was the high bar, a piece on which you have to take risks to get big rewards. Hashimoto performed a daring routine filled with huge releases and he always caught the bar again. His score of 14.5 secured the gold medal. Ukrainian gymnast Illia Kovtun won the silver medal, which was very popular with the crowd. Nineteen-year-old American Fred Richard held on to the bronze medal despite falling off the high bar.
After a record-breaking World Championships in Liverpool last year, expectations were high for the British team. Ultimately, there were a lot of disappointing results. The men’s team came forth while the women’s team came sixth. Unfortunately, in the warm up for the women’s all-around final, the star of the team Jessica Gadirova felt pain in her leg, so she pulled out of all of her finals. Gadirova later revealed that the injury was an ACL tear, which makes her chances of being able to compete at the Paris Olympics very small. There was further disappointment in the men’s pommel horse final as double Olympic Champion Max Whitlock fell off half way through his routine. He had performed the routine to a very high standard earlier in the week and his score from the team final would have won the gold.
Luckily, Jake Jarman saved the championship from being a complete disaster for the British team. He qualified for the vault final in eighth place. When it was his turn, he made the most difficult vault of the final, a somersault with three and a half twists, look easy. His slightly simpler vault did not have such a good landing but it was still enough for him to claim the gold medal. Jarman became the first British World Champion on vault aged only 21.
