It’s a title with an announcement: gymnastics superstar Simone Biles wins her 20th World Championship gold with the team. The 26-year-old also sets a record.
As everyone is already cheering in the Sportpaleis in Antwerp, Simone Biles has to concentrate again – for her floor exercise. The final element in the gymnasts’ team competition at the World Championships. As the music starts, Biles lets a small smile cross her face and then she’s back on that stage. Biles is in her element, moves confidently as if she had never been away and throws her arms into the air with the last chord of the music. She knows: This is gold.
Simone Biles: Team gold & mega record in comeback | SWR Sports
And that is already clear before the result appears on the screen in the hall. For Biles it is the 20th World Championship gold and a medal record. With 33 medals at the World Championships and Olympic Games, Biles has become the most successful gymnast in history.
Biles: “It feels different but still exciting”
Together with the US gymnasts, Biles won the team all-around title with 167.729 points. “It feels different, but still exciting. I’m not 16 anymore, I’m 26,” she says in the interview. “I think more about gymnastics now. It’s not so carefree anymore. Staying at the top, pushing yourself every day, is harder.” But, she did it. “It’s crazy, but I’m proud of everything that I, and the team, have invested.”
Second behind the USA, who have won all gymnastics team titles since 2011 and had already collected the most points in qualification, is Brazil (165.530). France secured third place (164,064).
Germany finished 13th and missed the final and Olympic qualification
As 13th in the preliminary round, the German team missed both the World Cup final and participation in the Olympic Games in Paris. “We haven’t digested the whole thing 100 percent yet because it was a dream that was shattered, at least as far as team qualification is concerned,” said Pauline Schäfer-Betz.
The woman from Chemnitz has secured a personal starting place in Paris as the best German all-around athlete and is doing gymnastics in Antwerp together with Sarah Voss (Cologne) in the World Cup final on Friday and on her flagship balance beam apparatus on Sunday.
Biles renounces “Biles II”
Biles, who did not take part in the last two World Championships because of her mental problems, forgot her sensational jump “Biles II”, which she had presented to the world three days earlier, in the team final. But even without the last risk, she received a high score of 14,800 points. She then moves through the program with both routine and skill, leading the US team to victory. And at the end of this evening, Simone Biles can also celebrate in the Sportpaleis in Antwerp.
