Simone Biles won a silver medal on vault at the World Gymnastics Championships despite a fall, proving the difficulty that sets her apart from other competitors.
Biles, the No. 1 qualifier and heavy favorite, over-rotated Yurchenko’s double pike (now called Biles because she was the first and only woman to land it internationally) and safely turned backwards. I fell flat on my back on the mat.
She landed cleanly on her second vault, twisting Chen, with a small jump to the side. She averaged 14.549 points on two vaults in Antwerp, Belgium.
Brazilian Rebecca Andrade then overtook Biles on both vaults with an average of 14.75 points. Her difficulty level was on average seven-tenths less than Biles, but she surpassed the American in executions.
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South Korea’s Yeo Seo-jeong won the bronze medal (14.416 points) by completing two vaults at an average difficulty level of 8/10 less than Biles.
Biles won the medal in a fall because her vault had a high starting value, as it was the most difficult of the nine women’s finals.
Biles won 35 medals at the Olympics and World Championships, including 28 world medals.
Biles has won six medals in world vaulting out of six times she has competed in world championships, which ranks second behind Oksana Chusovitina’s nine medals.
Another American who competed in the final, Lian Wong, placed seventh. American Jocelyn Roberson had qualified for the final in sixth place, but withdrew on Saturday morning after injuring his ankle while warming up for Wednesday’s team final.
Later Saturday, Biles will compete in the uneven bars final, the only one of the four events in which he is not a medal candidate. Biles advanced to the finals in fifth place. Her lifetime medals are on the horizontal bar and she has one, a silver medal in 2018.
Earlier on Saturday, Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat won the men’s floor, adding to his Olympic title in Tokyo.
Fred Richard of the United States, who had already won bronze medals in the team and individual all-around, placed eighth in the eight-a-side final.
The world championships conclude on Sunday with five more apparatus finals. Biles is the favorite to win in both the women’s balance beam and gymnastics events. peacock The finals will be live streamed at 8 a.m. ET.
