Simone Biles keeps breaking records and making history.
The 26-year-old Olympic athlete took home her sixth all-around world championship gold on Friday at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Belgium. While that is a major feat for any professional athlete, this particular medal secured Biles' status as the most decorated gymnast — man or woman — ever.
The gold is Biles' 34th medal between the Olympics and world championships, putting her at the top of her sport. She had been tied at 33 medals with Belarus gymnast Vitaly Scherbo, who competed in the '90s.
In a video from the medal ceremony, where Biles stood on the podium next to silver winner Rebeca Andrade and bronze winner Shilese Jones, Biles can be seen wiping away tears as the American national anthem plays. But the four-time Olympic gold medalist explained that those tears weren't all from being emotional.
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“I was emotional because it was my first worlds here, 10 years ago, and then now my sixth one, so it's crazy,” Biles said in an interview after the competition. “But I swear, I do have something in my eye that's been bothering me for, like, four hours and I cannot get it out…. So while I was looking up there, it was like a combination of both."
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Biles' latest medal is the second gold she has taken home this week from the world championships; she earned another on Wednesday, with the US team final. Biles could also win four more as she is set to compete in the women's vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor routine this weekend.
In 2021, during the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, the gymnast had to pull out of several Olympic events after she experienced a phenomenon called the “twisties,” which is described as when a gymnast can't control how their body will land, despite knowing or having practiced a move. Biles returned to the competition floor, winning bronze at the balance beam final. She then took a two-year hiatus from competing.
Biles returned to competition this summer. On August 5, she competed in the Core Hydration Classic in Illinois and took home the first-place prize.
With Biles in competition again, it's likely she will make her return to the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Let's hope we will see her break even more records.
