CNN –
Simone Biles announced her return to the world stage in style on Sunday as she placed first in the women’s all-around qualification at the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and became the first woman to land the Yurchenko double high jump at an international competition.
Biles climbed to the vault, shot high into the air, spun in a square bruise, and landed with just a single backward step to make history.
This achievement ensured that the skill is now named “Biles II” in honor of the 19-time world champion, making it her fifth named element.
A skill of high difficulty that was historically only performed by men. The element consists of a jump onto the diving board, followed by a backward jump onto the diving table and ending with a double backflip into the air to land.
With an all-around score of 58.865, she was in first place at the end of her qualifying session and in a commanding position to advance to all four individual finals and the all-around final later in the week.
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Biles was competing in her first competition on the world stage since the Tokyo Olympics.
After her qualifying round, the 26-year-old sits in first place on three apparatus – floor, vault and balance beam – and second on the uneven bars, behind teammate Shilese Jones.
The US team earned an impressive qualifying score of 171.395 as a team, and although most of the other teams have not yet completed their own qualifying round, it seems virtually certain that the Americans will advance to the team final, as their overall score exceeds the 167.263 that they achieved had qualified, surpassed last year in first place.
It will be Biles’ first competition back on the world stage since the 2020 Tokyo Games, when she withdrew from several competitions because she suffered from so-called “twisties” – a mental block that causes a gymnast to lose the gymnast in mid-air loses track of their positions.
Since then, she has once again demonstrated all the qualities that have taken her to the top of the sport and returned to win a record eighth national all-around title.
And through her participation in Antwerp, Biles became the first woman to represent the United States at six world artistic championships.
Meanwhile, the U.S. men’s gymnastics team secured its spot in the team competition at next year’s Olympics in Paris by qualifying for the team finals in second place behind Japan.