Simone Biles is the most decorated US gymnast of all-tme
Simone Biles broke a 90-year record by winning her eighth all-around title at the US Gymnastics Championships.
Her win comes less than a month after the four-time Olympic champion returned to competition, following a two-year break to work on her mental health.
The 26-year-old’s floor routine earned a score of 15.400, giving her an all-around total of 118.450, with Shilese Jones 3.9 points back in second.
Biles moves ahead of Alfred Jochim, who claimed his seventh US title in 1933.
She was the only competitor to finish the two days of competition in San Jose with two scores of 15 or higher, having taken control of the event with 15.700 on the vault on Friday.
Biles first became US all-around champion in 2013 and matched Jochim’s record in 2021.
Later that year she took a break from gymnastics after pulling out of five of her six finals at the delayed Tokyo Olympics.
She later explained she had been experiencing ‘the twisties’ – a kind of mental block where gymnasts can lose their sense of space in the air.
Biles, who did manage to win a balance beam bronze and a team silver in Tokyo, is yet to indicate whether she will aim to compete at next year’s Olympics in Paris.
But she is expected to take part in the World Championships in Antwerp from 30 September to 8 October, where she would have the chance to add to her tally of 25 world medals, including 19 golds.
BBC NEWS
