Simone Biles continues her medal harvest in Belgium. On Sunday October 8, the American gymnast was crowned on the balance beam at the World Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp (Belgium). This is his third title of the week after his gold medals in the team event and all-around. Star of her discipline, Simone Biles now has 22 gold medals in world championships, in six contested editions.
Beaten the day before in the vault final by the Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, Simone Biles once again encountered adversity on Sunday, in the person of the 17-year-old Chinese girl, Zhou Yaqin. Author of a grandiose performance, the latter achieved the feat of obtaining a score of 14,700. But the American did even better, winning with an exceptional score of 14.800. Rebeca Andrade completes the podium the day after her title.
Ultimately, the title came down to one movement. While Biles performed acrobatics without moving a millimeter on the apparatus, Zhou Yaquin let the gold medal slip because of a step back taken at the exit of the beam, penalized by a tenth of point.
Gymnastics superstar
This title further confirms the return to the forefront of a superstar who had left the gymnastics mats for two years. Biles had thus experienced a difficult Tokyo Olympic Games, marked by the episode of the twisties, these sudden and unpredictable losses of any reference point in space. The Texan subsequently completely stopped practicing her discipline, and only resumed competition last August, in the United States.
Symbolically, it is in Antwerp, the city where she acquired her first world title in 2013, that Simone Biles once again continues to add to her list of seven Olympic medals, including four titles. She will have the opportunity to get new ones in less than a year, during the Paris Olympics.
