In 2013, 16-year-old Simone Biles made her debut at the World Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, and took home her first gold medal. Exactly 10 years later, she did it again in the same city. and Same venue, but with more hardware under her belt.
Biles won his 20th world gold medal on Oct. 4 in Antwerp as Team USA won a record-breaking seventh straight championship. She reached the podium at the 2023 Gymnastics World Championships at age 26, making her the oldest American woman to win a medal at a world championships, the news agency announced. NBC Sports.
The tournament also marks Biles’ return to the sport, and her first international tournament in Belgium will be her first in two years. She withdrew from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics due to “twisties” (a potentially dangerous mind-body disconnection in which a gymnast loses her spatial awareness mid-air), which left her physically and mentally challenged. It took me a while to recover.
“You need to take some kind of mental break, otherwise your body will obviously decide and that’s what happened to me in Tokyo,” Biles said. Inside Gymnastics Magazine About her free time. “It was the worst timing, but I’m very happy with what happened because I was able to focus on myself. And I’m still continuing to improve myself.”
During his hiatus from sports activities, Biles talked She spoke candidly about the importance of prioritizing her mental health and emotional well-being. “It’s difficult to talk about her own mental state because her injuries are invisible,” she said. excellent housekeeping “It’s hard for people to understand because they can’t see it, but I think that’s why it’s so important that we feel empowered to open up about it.”
And she continued to do so after announcing her return this summer. When she was asked how she was coping with returning to sports in an Instagram Q&A, she wrote, “I’ve done a lot of therapy.” people. “I go once a week for almost two hours. I’ve been through a lot of trauma, so it’s a blessing to be able to work through some trauma and work on healing.”
Although the World Championships are not over yet – the individual all-around final will be held on Friday and the individual competition is scheduled for the weekend – the competition has already been a success. Besides her medal count, Biles made history for another reason. In Sunday’s qualifying round, Biles became the first woman to land Yurchenko’s double pike vault in competition.of incredibly difficult combinationShe performed a back handspring round-off on the apparatus, then flipped twice in the air with her body folded and legs extended. This name will now be referred to as Biles II.it is 5th skill Named after her, there are two on the floor, one on the beam, and one in front of the jump.
Sure, there may be more records broken and medals won this weekend, but that’s not Biles’ biggest driving force at the moment.
“I think success means a little bit different to me than it used to, because before, everyone defined success for me, even if I had my own story that I wanted. ” Biles said. olympic.com before the world championship. “So right now I’m just showing up, being in a good head position, going out and having fun, and what happens happens.”
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