US gymnast Simone Biles won her 21st world title by winning gold in the women’s all-around event at the world gymnastics championships on Friday. This was the next big thing in her amazing comeback from a two-year break.
Biles won the final in Antwerp, where she also won her first world title ten years ago. She scored 58.399 points, which was more than the defending winner, Rebeca Andrade of Brazil (56.766), and her American teammate Shilese Jones took third place (56.332).
Biles, who is 26 years old, won gold with the US team on Wednesday, less than 10 months before the Olympics in Paris.
Biles wins her 27th world medal and sixth world all-around title.
She still has a chance to add to that total because she is in the running for four more podiums in the apparatus finals this coming weekend.
Two years after the Tokyo Olympics, the Texan has made a great return.
Biles was the clear favorite going into Japan because she had won four gold medals in Rio de Janeiro five years before. However, she broke down and pulled out of four of the five rounds.
She said she was struggling with the “twisties,” a mental block that makes gymnasts temporarily lose track of where they are in the air, which can hurt them when they land.