Biles claims record fifth all-around world title
American Simone Biles became the first woman to win five allaround titles at the gymnastics world championships, building on her legacy as one of the greatest of all-time.
It was Biles’ 16th gold medal at the worlds and added to her allaround titles from 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2018.
Needing 12.301 in the floor exercise Thursday in Stuttgart, Germany, to reclaim her title in the final rotation, Biles scored 14.400 points to finish with an overall score of 58.999 — beating China’s Tang Xijing by a huge margin of 2.100.
Russia’s Angelina Melnikova took bronze with 56.399.
“It means the world to me,” Biles said. “For my fifth, that’s kind of unheard of, so it was really exciting.
“But we finished strong and we gave it our all. It’s super exciting that we had the opportunity to do this.”
Biles recorded two penalties on the floor, but still secured the biggest margin of victory at a world championships under the code of points — a scoring system introduced for major events in 2006.
The four-time Olympic gold medallist produced a massive Cheng vault, scoring 15.233 despite a 0.1 penalty for stepping out of bounds.
The second rotation saw her earn 14.733 on the uneven bars, considered her weakest apparatus, but was still enough to hand her a lead of more than one point.
Biles did not perform her eponymous double-double dismount off the balance beam, a skill widely thought to be undervalued in difficulty by the International Gymnastics Federation. Yet she still finished with a leading score of 14.633 on the apparatus.
“Sometimes I wonder how I do it,” Biles said. “I wish I could have like an out-of-body experience to witness it because sometimes I think I’m going crazy.”
It was her second world title of the week, having already helped the U.S. to its fifth consecutive team title Tuesday.
The 22-year-old is now one short of Belarusian Vitaly Scherbo’s record haul of 23 medals — a milestone she could surpass by the end of the this weekend.