Simone Biles Is Mathematically the Best Gymnast in History After This Weekend
This weekend Stuttgart, Germany, hosted the World Gymnastics Championship, and while it's nominally a venue for the best gymnasts across the globe to compete against each other, it was essentially the Simone Biles Show. Going into the competition, Biles had 23 medals, tied with Belarusian Vitaly Scherbo for the most medals of any gymnast, man or woman. Scherbo's record had stood untouched since 1996.
Performing on the balance beam, Biles won her 24th medal, securing her position as the most decorated gymnast in history. She managed a near-perfect score of 15.066, which would have been slightly higher if she had pulled off a more complicated dismount. But the dismount has been an issue for her in the past and she didn't see it paying off in a cost-benefit analysis. "It's not worth the one-tenth [extra difficulty point]," she told the Associated Press. "I'm sorry, it's just not."
Later in the day she returned for the floor exercise portion of the competition, where she completed a triple-twisting, double somersault that she alone has managed to pull off while competing. That bumped her career medal count to 25 and set yet another world record in the process. She was so exhausted, following 10 straight days of competition, that she couldn't stand up and walk off after she completed her routine.
Since her stunning performance at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, Biles has been one of the most celebrated names in gymnastics. But with her Sunday's wins under her belt, she's now entering the realm of untouchable athletes whose careers have come to define their sport, like Serena Williams for tennis and Usain Bolt for track. According to the Washington Post, this is likely Biles's last world championship appearance.
"I can't be more thrilled with the performance that I put out at this world championships," she said. But apparently she wasn't even talking about the record, adding, "I'm not a number person."
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Originally Appeared on GQ
