Simone Biles ended the world gymnastics championships with two more gold medals on Sunday, giving her four for the meet and a record-extending 30 career world medals.
Biles won world titles on the balance beam for a record-extending fourth time and floor exercise for a record-extending sixth time.
She has twice as many world titles on each event as the next-best woman in history. But the 26-year-old is less concerned with podiums in her comeback than she was in the past.
“I had to prove to myself that I could still get out here, twist, I could prove all the haters wrong that I’m not a quitter, this, that, the other,” she said, referencing the twisties, which caused her to withdraw during the Tokyo Olympics. “As long as I’m out there twisting again, having and finding the joy for gymnastics again, who cares?”
GYMNASTICS WORLDS: Results
Biles capped a successful comeback season, her first since the Tokyo Games and after just three months of full-on training before her first meet in August.
She also went undefeated in all-around competitions this summer and fall and led the U.S. to a record-breaking seventh consecutive world team title.
She said she’s proudest of her fight since ramping up to full training after her May 6 wedding.
“We’ve all been a little bit nervous going into the meets,” she said.
Biles is up to 37 career Olympic and world championships medals. She has competed in 36 career Olympic or world finals in the team, all-around, beam, floor and vault events and won a medal in all 36. Her other medal was an uneven bars silver in 2018.
She is not expected to compete again before 2024, when she can bid to become the oldest U.S. Olympic female gymnast since 1952, according to Olympedia.org. The five-woman team for Paris will be named after June’s trials in Minneapolis.
“I do feel really comfortable with where I’m at right now,” she said at worlds in Antwerp, Belgium, also the site of her first worlds in 2013. “Training, competing, I feel like every day has been a little bit less nerve-racking just going back out there.”
Also Sunday, Khoi Young added vault silver to his team bronze and pommel horse silver medals.
Young, a Stanford junior, became the second U.S. man in the last 40 years to win three medals at a single worlds after Paul Hamm in 2003.
“It was a lot of stress, but I’m absolutely happy with how I’ve done,” said Young, who withdrew during the 2022 U.S. Championships while in 10th place, then was runner-up at this past August’s nationals. “I came in with not many expectations.”
