Simone Biles wins 20th world championship title, first since 2019, as comeback continues

For the first time in four years, Simone Biles is a world champion.

The gymnast led Team USA to a team title at the 2023 World Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp on Wednesday, her first world title since winning five events at the 2019 meet in Stuttgart. It is Biles’ 20th gold medal and 26th medal overall, further cementing her as the most decorated gymnast in world history.

Biles and Shilese Jones competed in every apparatus, while Leanne Wong and Skye Blakely filled out the team in the final. Brazil earned silver while France took bronze.

The U.S. has now won an unprecedented seven straight women’s team titles in the world championships. The last a country other than the U.S. won the event was Russia in 2010.

Biles posted a 14.800 in the vault (despite not attempting her most difficult skill), a 14.466 in the uneven bars, a 14.300 in the balance beam and a 15.166 in the floor exercise, with the latter clinching the title for the Americans. Those numbers bear out to a total score of 58.732.

For comparison, Biles won the 2019 world individual all-around title in 2019 with a total score of 58.999. The silver medalist that year had a 56.899.

The performance emphasizes what has been increasingly clear since Biles first returned to competition this summer: she is once again at the height of her powers, even after her struggles at the 2020 Olympics and two-year hiatus from the sport.

Biles is nowhere close to done in Antwerp either, as she qualified for the finals in every apparatus and will compete for her record-extending sixth world all-around title.

Medals aside, Biles already made her mark in the history books by landing the Yurchenko double pike in the vault on Sunday, which means the skill will be officially named after now that she has landed it in international competition.

It is the fifth skill to be named after Biles.

Biles returned to competition in Aug. at the U.S. Classic with a dominant performance, then took home a record eighth all-around title at the U.S. Championships. Prior to that, she spent two years working on herself, mostly by going to therapy while also marrying Green Bay Packers defensive back Jonathan Owens.

Once the world championships are done, the next step up for Biles will be the 2024 Olympics in Paris, with a chance at righting what went so wrong in Tokyo. Biles entered the 2020 Games (held in 2021) as the overwhelming favorite to win a second straight all-around gold medal, but instead fell victim to the “twisties.” Biles dropped out of the team competition after balking on the vault and didn’t return until the final individual event, the balance beam, where she won bronze.

Biles has already made it very clear she intends to compete at the 2024 Olympics, and she figures to again be one of the most-followed athletes in the world as the athletes converge in Paris.