Despite having been hospitalized just a day before competing, 21-year old superstar gymnast Simone Biles has made history as the first American to win every event at the World Gymnastics Championships. She took home six medals after winning gold in the floor exercise and bronze in the balance beam in Doha, Qatar.
According to USA Today, Biles “debuted a vault so hard some of the top men can’t even do it — a roundoff with a half-twist onto the vaulting table and then a front double full somersault off – and it will now be named for her.”
Solidifying U.S. women’s place in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, Biles’ impressive win comes on the heels of her 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro where she won 5 medals before taking a year off from competing.
“Confidence-wise and consistency, I think we still have a ways to go to get back up to where I was in Rio,” Biles said after the national championships. “But gymnastics wise, yes.”
Born in Columbus, Ohio, and raised in Houston, Texas, Biles has won a record twenty-five Olympic and World Championship medals. She began competing in 2013, and by 2015, the year she graduated from high school, she had won her third consecutive U.S. championship. Her success has garnered her the title of “greatest gymnast ever.”
