It's official.
Superstar gymnast Simone Biles is headed back to the global stage after topping the all-around standings Tuesday evening (19 September 2023) at the U.S. Women's World Championships Selection Event, in Katy, Texas.
She earned an all-around total of 55.700, ahead of Shilese Jones' 55.300. Skye Blakely (55.000) rounded out the top three.
By virtue of her all-around victory, Biles locks her spot on the U.S. squad for the Worlds. She is the only U.S. woman to qualify for six World teams. Team USA's remaining five members will be announced following a second day of competition Wednesday (20 September).
"Back to where it all started, see you soon Belgium," said Biles in an Instagram story post after competition.
Winner of 25 previous medals at the World Championships, Biles will look to add even more history to her resume at the World Championships later this month in Antwerp, Belgium. Ten years ago, Biles made her Worlds debut in Antwerp, capturing all-around and floor exercise golds, in addition to vault silver and beam bronze.
Despite the win, it was far from Biles' best, as she suffered uncharacteristic mistakes on three of the four apparatus.
"I gave her a hug and I said you know, 'Congratulations' because, obviously, she locked her spot," said USA Gymnastics women's program high performance technical lead Chellsie Memmel, the 2005 world all-around champion. "She was kind of like [grimaces], I was like, 'Okay, I know it wasn't your best.' She's like, 'Yeah, I don't know what happened.' Like, 'Get it out here. And you know, it's it's gonna be okay, like we'll just turn turn the page.'"
The selection event takes place in a gymnastics training facility - Stars Gymnastics - that plays host to monthly U.S. national team camps, not an arena.
On Thursday night, the audience, which Biles seems to thrive under, was just 100 or so family members of the competing gymnasts and athletes who train at Stars.
Though Biles is a veteran of selection camps and events prior, it was the first competition with such stakes for the 26-year-old in her 2023 return to the sport and te seven-time Olympic medallist found herself in unfamiliar territory early - near the bottom of the all-around standings. After she fell on her transition from the low bar to the high bar in her opening routine on the uneven bars, Biles scored just 12.850.
She rebounded in the second rotation, earning a 14.050 on the balance beam, but still lost .5 for missing a composition requirement after the judges said she paused between two leaps.
On the floor exercise, Biles went out of bounds twice - first after the double layout half out (named for Biles) and second on her double layout dismount. She scored 14.300, the highest score on the event of the day.
Biles ended her day performing the daring Yurchenko double pike vault that has become her signature, but overrotated it and fell to her back for a 14.550.
In the final rotation, Jones had a chance to upset Biles but incurred a 1.0 deduction during her uneven bars routine when her feet touched the ground after a Pak salto.