ANTWERP, Belgium — Last Sunday, olympic medalist Simone Biles led a dominant performance by the U.S. women at the world gymnastics championships. She posted a total of 58.865 points to lead qualifying scores through the competition’s two subdivisions.
A five-time all-around gymnastics world champion, the 26-year-old is also a seven-time Olympic medalist. She registered the best scores in the floor exercise, vault and balance beam competitions; she scored second place behind teammate Shilese Jones on the uneven bars through the first portion of qualifying.
The American team of Simone Biles, Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely, Leanne Wong and Joscelyn Roberson generated combined scores totaling 171.395 points, the best totals by a considerable margin.
By the end of the qualifying rounds, only the team from Italy had scored high enough to come close to the Americans, at 162.230 points through two of the competition’s 10 subdivisions.
Biles, whose 25 olympic championship medals (19 of them gold) is already in the record books. She has had the opportunity to make substantial additions to that total throughout the week.
Biles, who returned to competition this summer following a two-year break after the Tokyo Olympics, completed her signature Yurchenko double pike vault with ease, scoring a 15.766 even though she voluntarily took a half-point deduction so coach Laurent Landi could stand on the mat as a precaution.
Teammate Shilese Jones, who won three medals at the 2022 world championships, will join Biles in the all-around finals after posting a total of 56.932 led by a sparkling set on uneven bars, where her 14.833 score led all competitors.
