Simone Biles can't stop winning gold medals at World Championships, places 1st in beam and floor
Simone Biles is going to need another suitcase to bring home all the hardware she's won in Belgium.
The individual beam and floor exercise events were held at the Gymnastics World Championships on Sunday, and Biles aced both of them.
SHE'S DONE IT AGAIN 🥇🐐@Simone_Biles is the #Antwerp2023 World Champion on Beam.
📺 @peacock
pic.twitter.com/5fZ4nasNpv— Team USA (@TeamUSA) October 8, 2023
30 WORLD MEDALS 🐐@Simone_Biles wins gold in her final event at #Antwerp2023! 🥇
pic.twitter.com/dl2UpoYoVZ— Team USA (@TeamUSA) October 8, 2023
Those wins on beam and floor are Biles' third and fourth gold medals of the world championships. She won her second gold after winning the individual all-around for the sixth time, and her first gold of the tournament came when Team USA won the team all-around. She also won silver on vault and placed fifth on the uneven bars (which is typically her worst event).
Biles is back at the world championships for the first time since 2019. She took a two-year break after her experience at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (which took place in July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), when she got the "twisties" and pulled out of the team competition and the individual all-around.
The twisties is a mental block or anxiety issue; it's the term gymnasts use to describe the sensation of not being able to tell where the ground is while they're in the air. It's dangerous, debilitating, and one of the worst things that can happen to a gymnast at any point, let alone during the most famous athletic competition in the world. Biles later said she had been putting too much pressure on herself to do well.
🥺🥺🥺🥺
real talk I didn’t think so either https://t.co/JUlvnZ6PUW— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) October 8, 2023
Despite the recent wins, Biles and her coach are just focusing on the present and the immediate future. They don't want to look too far ahead (like to the 2024 Paris Olympics, which start in 10 months) so Biles can avoid putting unnecessary pressure on herself.
“I think we’re going to take that approach, the same one that we took this year, just meet by meet and we’ll see where we end up," Biles said.
Judging by the results, she shouldn't change a single thing.