There is a long-running joke about how Simone Biles would win even if she falls two or three times. The American turned that joke into a reality at the Aspire Dome yesterday.
Biles had an off day by her enormous standards at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, as she fell twice on Vault and Balance Beam, yet the 21-year-old was good enough to clinch a record-breaking fourth All-around Worlds title.
Later, Biles was her harshest critic as she admonished her performance, calling it “little disappointing and very uncharacteristic”. But in the annals of gymnastics, Biles is well on her way to become the greatest ever.
The 21-year-old finished with a score of 57.491, ahead of Japan’s Mai Murakami and teammate Morgan Hurd, who was last year’s champion in Biles’ absence.
Even with the mistakes, Biles’ margin of victory – 1.693 – is the largest at the Worlds since the current points system replaced perfect-10 method in 2006. Only her victory at the Rio Olympic Games, by 2.1 points, is bigger.
Biles had won four gold and a bronze in Rio and came to Doha as a ten-time world champion, and the American conceded yesterday’s triumph was her toughest till date. “This one has probably been the hardest to get out of all my world championships and Olympic medals, and the scariest one. It’s exciting to bring back a gold medal for the US, but for me it’s a bit disappointing because that’s not the performance I would hope to give,” she said.
“It was a tough day. I didn’t know if I was going to pull it off today, and then I started doubting myself and I tried to track back to training and see how well that went. I tried to just think of that. You should always fall back on training because I’ve had such a good training here,” she added.
Biles has already added two more gold medals in Doha – the team and All-around – and she is in contention for four more in the individual apparatus today and tomorrow. She is the hot favourite to win in three of them, with Uneven Bars not being her best routine.
Biles currently has 12 Worlds gold, tied with Vitaly Scherbo and she is certain to pull away from the retired Belarusian today, making her the most decorated gymnast. She could also become the first woman to earn six medals at a world championships since Yelena Shushunova did for Soviet Union in 1987.
The kidney stone that had troubled Biles last week and forced her to check into a hospital seemed to have an impact on her yesterday. Or it was just the pressure of being on the verge of creating a history. Either way, Biles was jittery to begin with.
The 4 feet 8 inch from Texas began her All-round final yesterday with a Vault, that has been named after her, but she goofed up her with landing, as Hurd took the early lead. Because of the Vault’s difficulty, Biles scored a 14.533, which left her in third place.
Biles, however, vaulted into the lead, after a clinical display in Uneven Bars, where she scored 14.725. But a fall on the Balance Beam, when a somersault went wrong, and some impressive performances by Murakami and Nina Derwael, cut down her lead to mere 0.092 going into the final rotation.
While Belgium’s Derwael was unlucky to miss out on a medal despite a good Floor Exercise, Murakami jumped into the lead with a score of 13.666. With all eyes at Aspire Dome on her, and not to mention about the pressure, Biles seemed to have crumbled when she began her Floor Exercise with one foot out of bounds on her first tumbling pass.
But in the rest of the routine she bounced back in spectacular fashion, nailing her every move as the spectators gasped in awe at Biles’ agility and strength. The difficulty level of her routine was so high that the judges awarded her 15.000 points, sealing a remarkable victory.
On her flawless floor routine, Biles said: “I was like, ‘Well, today seems to be horrible, so let’s see what else can go wrong.’ Then I had to get those bad thoughts out of my head.’ I’m used to ending on floor, so that’s nothing new to me. I had to go out there and put on a good performance for myself.”
Silver medallist Murakami summed up the final perfectly, when she said: “Instead of thinking I could win, I was thinking ‘Oh, Biles can fall.’”
The Japanese finished .066 ahead of last year’s champion Hurd. “I just wanted to do four clean routines and I did and it brought the silver medal. And I wanted to finish with a smile,” Murakami said.
Hurd paid the price for a poor show in Beam and slipped down to fourth before a confident finish on Floor Exercise fetched her a bronze. “Vault, Bars and Floor went really well. I’m not completely happy with beam. I had kind of a large mistake. I’m not satisfied, and I would rather it have been little better, but that’s OK. It happened. I was trying to be a little too perfect,” she said.
Hurd shares a good camaraderie with Biles, with the two constantly egging on each other to perform better during their routines. “I think we play off each other’s energies and keep each other having fun. It’s absolutely insane that she fell twice. It definitely pushes me to be such a better gymnast, and if I can’t reach her in difficulty, I definitely want to catch her with my execution,” Hurd said.
Women’s all-around final (Top 8)
1. Simone Biles (USA) 57.491 points
2. Mai Murakami (JPN) 55.798
3. Morgan Hurd (USA) 55.732
4. Nina Derwael (BEL) 55.699
5. Angelina Melnikova (RUS) 55.698
6. Melanie De Jesus Dos Santos (FRA) 55.599
7. Chen Yile (CHN) 54.632
8. Flavia Saraiva (BRA) 54.366