Despite losing a gymnast to a last-minute injury, the U.S. team clinched its seventh consecutive world gold medal at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.
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Simone Biles leads U.S. women’s gymnastics team to world gold after teammate’s injury
Despite losing a gymnast to a last-minute injury, the U.S. team clinched its seventh consecutive world gold medal at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.
Simone Biles competes on the balance beam
Simone Biles competes at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, on Tuesday.Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP via Getty Images
Oct. 4, 2023, 8:46 PM GMT+1
By Kaetlyn Liddy
Simone Biles led the U.S. women’s gymnastics team to another team gold medal at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, on Wednesday.
The win is the seventh in a row for the U.S. team and the 26th world medal for Biles.
The competition started on a tough note for Team USA, with Joscelyn Roberson, who trains alongside Biles at World Champions Centre in Spring, Texas, sustaining an injury in warmups and being carried off the podium before the first rotation. Roberson appeared to land at a low angle while she was warming up for a difficult vault called the “Cheng,” which Biles also performs.
Her teammate Leanne Wong substituted for Roberson on the vault and the floor exercise. Wong had planned to compete in only one event — the balance beam — and she delivered clutch routines in Roberson’s place on extremely short notice.
Despite competing with only four gymnasts instead of five, the U.S. team finished over 2 points ahead of the silver medal-winning team, Brazil. It was the first world team medal for Brazil, led by the reigning world champion, Rebeca Andrade. The team from France claimed the bronze for its first team medal since 1950.
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Simone Biles leads U.S. women’s gymnastics team to world gold after teammate’s injury
Despite losing a gymnast to a last-minute injury, the U.S. team clinched its seventh consecutive world gold medal at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.
Simone Biles competes on the balance beam
Simone Biles competes at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, on Tuesday.Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP via Getty Images
Oct. 4, 2023, 8:46 PM GMT+1
By Kaetlyn Liddy
Simone Biles led the U.S. women’s gymnastics team to another team gold medal at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, on Wednesday.
The win is the seventh in a row for the U.S. team and the 26th world medal for Biles.
The competition started on a tough note for Team USA, with Joscelyn Roberson, who trains alongside Biles at World Champions Centre in Spring, Texas, sustaining an injury in warmups and being carried off the podium before the first rotation. Roberson appeared to land at a low angle while she was warming up for a difficult vault called the “Cheng,” which Biles also performs.
Her teammate Leanne Wong substituted for Roberson on the vault and the floor exercise. Wong had planned to compete in only one event — the balance beam — and she delivered clutch routines in Roberson’s place on extremely short notice.
Despite competing with only four gymnasts instead of five, the U.S. team finished over 2 points ahead of the silver medal-winning team, Brazil. It was the first world team medal for Brazil, led by the reigning world champion, Rebeca Andrade. The team from France claimed the bronze for its first team medal since 1950.
Shilese Jones, the 2022 world all-around silver medalist, started Team USA off with a strong double-twisting Yurchenko on the vault. Wong performed the same vault after a very brief warmup, cementing her spot on the team as a reliable athlete in a pinch. Biles did not compete with her new Yurchenko double pike vault but opted for a Cheng — the vault Roberson fell on in warmups — and scored a 14.800.
After a stellar bars rotation for Team USA, Wong fell off the balance beam, incurring a full point deduction. The routine scored a brutal 11.700, but hit routines by Jones and Biles kept the U.S. in first place going into the fourth and final rotation.
Biles anchored the team’s effort on the floor exercise, solidifying their win with an enormous 15.166.
The team from Great Britain, which entered the final as the silver medal favorites, counted three falls in a performance that took it off the podium. The other teams in medal contention — Brazil and China — had falls on the beam and in the floor exercise respectively, opening the door for France to contend for a medal. It was the only team with no falls Wednesday.
“Nobody wants these medals,” NBC commentator Samantha Peszek, a 2008 Olympic silver medalist, joked on the Peacock broadcast.
The U.S. women dominated the qualification round, with two members qualifying for every final. Biles qualified in first place for the all-around, vault, floor exercise and balance beam finals and in fifth place for the uneven bars final, which is considered to be her “weakest” event.
Biles will be joined by Jones in the all-around, floor, uneven bars and balance beam finals. Roberson qualified to the vault final, as well, but the status of her injury has yet to be announced.