Photo credits: John Cheng of USA Gymnastics.
It was a day filled with triumph as 18 year old Simone Biles continued her conquest of World gymnastics stardom as she secured back-to-back beam and floor individual event titles; complimenting the all-around and team titles she'd won earlier this week.
She started her competitive prowess at the team final event – contributing to the USA on three events (VT, BB & FX). She put in three excellent performances to lead the team to their straight World title; winning by just over 5 whole points!
Of course Biles' competition wasn't over yet – far from it, in fact! She entered Thursday's individual all-around final knowing that she was on the cusp of claiming her third straight World title. Remaining composed and confident, she opened her night with an oustanding Amanar vault – tallying the highest of the event! Moving to bars, Simone was bracing herself for a gutsy performance – knowing this isn't her favorite piece. However, she swang through a confident routine.
Her third routine was on the notorious balance beam; an enemy to many during this competition. After a solid, assured program during the first half of the routine, she unfortunately put her hands down on her front tuck. Managing to finish up well, this fault didn't rendered too problematic, and she was still inline to defend her title. She finished her competition on the floor exercise. Evidently she had a bit too much nervous energy going into her second tumbling pass – launching her out of bounds! However, she recovered well and finished over a mark ahead of countrywoman Gabby Douglas. This result solidified Biles' 'threepeat' of all-around titles; winning from 2013 to 2015.
She started her competitive prowess at the team final event – contributing to the USA on three events (VT, BB & FX). She put in three excellent performances to lead the team to their straight World title; winning by just over 5 whole points!
Of course Biles' competition wasn't over yet – far from it, in fact! She entered Thursday's individual all-around final knowing that she was on the cusp of claiming her third straight World title. Remaining composed and confident, she opened her night with an oustanding Amanar vault – tallying the highest of the event! Moving to bars, Simone was bracing herself for a gutsy performance – knowing this isn't her favorite piece. However, she swang through a confident routine.
Her third routine was on the notorious balance beam; an enemy to many during this competition. After a solid, assured program during the first half of the routine, she unfortunately put her hands down on her front tuck. Managing to finish up well, this fault didn't rendered too problematic, and she was still inline to defend her title. She finished her competition on the floor exercise. Evidently she had a bit too much nervous energy going into her second tumbling pass – launching her out of bounds! However, she recovered well and finished over a mark ahead of countrywoman Gabby Douglas. This result solidified Biles' 'threepeat' of all-around titles; winning from 2013 to 2015.
With 8 golds already under he belt, she was well on her way into further Gymnastics stardom. However, she still had three more individual event finals to go – all of which she'd qualified to in pole position! After clinching a bronze medal in the vault final on Saturday, it was down to Simone to produce excellence performances on the Sunday. A mistake riddled balance beam final proved no issue for the Texan, as she obliterated the field – creating a whole mark division between she and second place gymnast, Sanne Wevers. After a joyous beam, it was over to floor. Although she went a little too powerful in the all-around, she was able to harness her energy, and performed an exceptional routine. An excellent score of 15.800 soared Biles above the Russian Ksenia Afanasyeva, and into the history books – claiming her tenth World title!
SO, WHERE DOES THIS RANK HER?
The winner of 10 World titles, Biles holds the record for the most amount of World titles – placing ahead of Larisa Latynina, Svetlana Khorkina and Gina Gogean; who each have 9 to their names. However, if you're counting the entire amount of World medals a gymnast has won, Biles sits in third with 14. She is behind Khorkina, with 20, and Gogean, with 15 respectively. Additionally, Biles is the most recent gymnast on the list until Aliya Mustafina, who won her last World title in 2014 – on the Balance Beam.
As a result, I feel that is safe to say that Simone has already stamped her mark on being 'One of the greatest gymnasts of 2010s', and perhaps of the 21st century! She is well within reach of claiming the 2016 Olympic AA title – which would prove a testament to all the hours of hardwork and previous competition results she has achieved!
As a result, I feel that is safe to say that Simone has already stamped her mark on being 'One of the greatest gymnasts of 2010s', and perhaps of the 21st century! She is well within reach of claiming the 2016 Olympic AA title – which would prove a testament to all the hours of hardwork and previous competition results she has achieved!
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