Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images
Biles won 21 gold medals at the world championships.
CNN
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A day after winning her sixth individual all-around title and becoming the most decorated athlete in gymnastics history, Simone Biles added to her extraordinary medal collection with a silver medal on vault at the World Gymnastics Championships on Saturday.
The 26-year-old fell while trying to land her first vault, Biles II, also known as Yurchenko Double Pike, and scored a 14.433. This mistake gave hope to competitors.
Having to quickly regain his composure for his second vault, Biles went on to score an impressive 14.666 points for an average score of 14.549.
The American’s total kept her in first place until defending champion Rebecca Andrade, the last of the nine gymnasts who competed, moved up the rankings.
Brazil’s Andrade finished with an overall score of 14.750, 0.201 points ahead of Biles, and celebrated by dancing on the floor with his country’s flag.
South Korea’s Yeo So-jeong won the bronze medal.
Later in the day, Biles finished fifth on the uneven bars, an event in which she has had her least success in years.
Biles scored 14.200 points in the event, which was won by China’s Qiu Qiuyuan with 15.100 points. Algeria’s Kaylia Nemours won the silver medal, and America’s Cilles Jones won the bronze medal.
At the World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, last weekend, Biles became the first woman to land Yurchenko’s double pike vault in an international competition, and the technique will be named in her honor during qualifying. attracted onlookers.
This difficult skill, historically only performed by men, involves a round-up on a vault, followed by a back handspring on the vault, and a final double backflip into the air before landing. This is a highly difficult technique.
On Friday, Biles won his sixth individual gold medal, surpassing Belarusian Vitaly Scherbo’s record of 33 Olympic and World Championship medals combined.
This contributed to Wednesday’s women’s team gold medal and was her second gold of the week. It was widely expected that Biles would score a hat-trick of gold medals in Belgium early Saturday morning, but she almost did it when she fell backwards trying to land Biles II. Andrade’s sublime performances on both vaults caught the Brazilian’s attention. Of course I will defend her title.
Biles now has 28 medals at the world championships (21 gold, four silver, and three bronze), an all-time record.
She will conclude the championships on Sunday with the balance beam and floor exercise finals.