Simone Biles becomes first woman to win four all-around gymnastics world titles

Biles now has a world all-around title for every worlds in which she has competed dating back to 2013.

Published : Nov 02, 2018 10:21 IST

Simone Biles becomes the first woman to win four all-around world titles despite errors on Thursday.
Simone Biles becomes the first woman to win four all-around world titles despite errors on Thursday.
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Simone Biles becomes the first woman to win four all-around world titles despite errors on Thursday.

Simone Biles made history on Thursday as she became the first woman to win four all-around world titles, despite making a few mistakes during the gymnastics world championships in Doha, Qatar.

 

The four-time Olympic gold medalist secured her victory with a combined 57.491 points. Japan's Mai Murakami was second with 55.798 points and Biles' teammate Morgan Hurd was third with 55.732.

The 21-year-old Texan accomplished the record-breaking feat with two falls (one on vault and one on balance beam), in addition to putting one foot out of bounds on her first tumbling pass on floor exercise. But Biles had a huge advantage in difficulty that carried her to the all-around world title. 

She tweeted after her performance: "didn’t mean to give everyone a heart attack. I apologize. I won't do that again."

 

Biles got off to a rocky start as she sat down on vault after executing an extremely difficult Yurchenko half on, front double full off and still scored 14.533. She made up for it with a strong performance on uneven bars, scoring 14.725 points to take the lead over Hurd at the midway point. 

Biles scored 13.233 points on her beam routine, but struggled as she needed a balance check to stay on following a front pike and then missed a connection. She had a slight lead heading into the final rotation and secured the title with 15.000 points on floor.

Biles now has a world all-around title for every worlds in which she has competed dating back to 2013, though she didn't compete at all in 2017. Her fourth title breaks a tie she previously held with Russia’s Svetlana Khorkina. 

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