Simone Biles led the U.S. women’s gymnastics team to another team gold medal at the 2023 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, on Wednesday.
This win marks the seventh consecutive world championship victory for the U.S. team and the 26th world medal for Biles.
The competition started on a tough note for Team USA, with Joscelyn Roberson, who trains alongside Biles at World Champions Centre in Spring, Texas, sustaining an injury in warmups and being carried off the podium before the first rotation. Roberson appeared to land at a low angle while warming up a difficult vault called the “Cheng,” which Biles also performs.
Her teammate, Leanne Wong, was substituted in for Roberson on vault and floor. Wong was initially planning to compete only one event – the balance beam – and delivered clutch routines in Roberson’s place on extremely short notice.
Despite competing with only four gymnasts instead of five, the U.S. team finished over two points ahead of the silver medal-winning team, Brazil. This marks the first world team medal for Brazil, led by reigning world champion, Rebeca Andrade. The team from France claimed the bronze for their first team medal since 1950.
Shilese Jones, the 2022 world all-around silver medalist, started Team USA off with a strong double-twisting Yurchenko on vault. Wong performed the same vault after a very brief warm up, cementing her spot on the team as a reliable athlete in a pinch. Biles did not compete her new Yurchenko double pike vault, but opted for a Cheng – the same vault Roberson fell on in warm ups – and scored a 14.800.
After a stellar bars rotation for Team USA, Wong fell off the balance beam, incurring a full point deduction. The routine scored a brutal 11.700, but hit routines from Jones and Biles kept them in first place going into the fourth and final rotation.
Biles anchored the team’s effort on floor, solidifying their win with an enormous 15.166.
The team from Great Britain, who entered the team final as the silver medal favorites, counted three falls in a performance that took them off the podium. The other teams in medal contention – Brazil and China – had falls on beam and floor respectively, opening the door for France to contend for a medal. They were the only team with no falls today.
“Nobody wants these medals,” NBC commentator and 2008 Olympic silver medalist, Samantha Peszek, joked on the Peacock broadcast.
The team win came after the U.S. women dominated the qualification round, with two athletes qualifying for every final. Biles qualified in first place for the all-around, vault, floor and balance beam finals and in fifth place for the uneven bars final, which is considered to be her “weakest” event.
Biles will be joined by Jones in the all-around, floor, uneven bars and balance beam finals. Roberson qualified to the vault final as well, but the status of her injury has yet to be announced.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
