Simone Biles has done it again.
Biles won her ninth national all-around title Sunday night to wrap up the USA Gymnastics Championships in Fort Worth, Texas. She won gold on all four apparatus and was nearly perfect throughout the entire competition as she prepares to contest her third Olympic Games this summer in Paris.
The win in Texas officially guaranteed Biles a spot at the U.S. Olympic Trials later this summer. She is now the first gymnast, male or female, to win nine all-around national titles. Biles already owns the record after she broke a tie with Alfred Jochim for the record with her eighth win last year. This win also made her the oldest woman to ever win the title.
Biles finished with an all-around score of 119.750. She once fell on the vault while trying to get out of Yurchenko’s signature double pike. It cost her a one-point deduction and marked her first fall of the season.
Sunday’s win came after Biles took the field at the US Classic last month to win the all-around title. Sky Blakely finished second with a score of 113.850. She narrowly beat out Kayla DiCillo, who won the bronze medal with a score of 110.800. Chiles Jones did not participate due to a shoulder injury. Jones and Kalia Lincoln were like that Petitions granted To participate in the Olympic trials.
Biles is back in the swing of things in the lead-up to the Olympics later this summer after leading Team USA to the team title at the World Gymnastics Championships last fall and being named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year in 2023.
Although she will still qualify later this summer, Biles is sure to be one of the most followed athletes in the world in France for the Olympics. These will be her first matches since she suffered “sprains” at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and she has competed in several competitions in what has been a stunning development for the four-time Olympic gold medalist.
Once again, Biles looks like she’s back to her old self. The Olympic trials are scheduled to begin on June 27 in Minneapolis, that is, a full month before the opening ceremony in Paris.
“Infuriatingly humble internet trailblazer. Twitter buff. Beer nerd. Bacon scholar. Coffee practitioner.”