Biles sets medals record at gymnastics worlds

STUTTGART, Germany — Simone Biles broke the record for medals by a gymnast at the world championships by winning the balance beam and floor exercise Sunday.

Biles won her 24th medal on the beam, breaking a tie with Belarusian men’s gymnast Vitaly Scherbo, and added her 25th less than two hours later.

“I can’t be more thrilled with the performance that I put out at this world championships,” she said. The medal record? “I’m not a number person.”

Biles scored 15.066 on the beam after a near-flawless routine, opting for a simpler dismount than the double-double she performed earlier in the championships.

That dismount is a sore point for Biles, who introduced the double-double to competition this season and feels the International Gymnastics Federation didn’t reward it with a high enough difficulty rating.

“It’s not worth the one-tenth [extra difficulty point]. I’m sorry, it’s just not,” she said.

When her score was announced, guaranteeing the medal record, Biles leaped up from her seat with a broad smile and punched the air.

“I was really excited. I thought it was going to be at least a 14.8, 14.9, but to see 15, I was like, ‘Well, that’s pretty crazy,’ so I was very proud,” she said.

China took silver and bronze with Liu Tingting scoring 14.433 and Li Shijia scoring 14.3, respectively.

Biles won the floor exercise by a full point, scoring 15.133 despite a step out of bounds on one pass, and blew kisses to the audience after finishing her routine. Her U.S. teammate Sunisa Lee took silver, her third medal of the championships, while Angelina Melnikova took bronze for Russia.

Biles’ winning routine came after a long wait when Brazilian gymnast Flavia Saraiva requested an inquiry into her score, during which time Biles sat on the edge of the floor.

Biles has won five events at these world championships after team gold Tuesday, individual all-around gold Thursday and vault gold Saturday.

A fifth place on uneven bars Saturday ended Biles’ chances of winning a medal in all six events, which she did last year in her comeback world championships after a sabbatical in 2017.

Biles hasn’t confirmed whether she’ll continue to compete after next year’s Olympics, so this could be her last world championships. Blowing kisses to the crowd wasn’t meant as a goodbye to the world championships, she said.

“It’s just a good floor routine, farewell to just the end of this world championship chapter here in Stuttgart,” she said.

Of her 25 career world medals, 19 are gold; 12 of Scherbo’s 23 medals were gold.

Earlier, Russia’s Nikita Nagornyy won the men’s vault for this third gold medal of the championships. He’s the first European man to win the vault since 2010.

Nagornyy scored an average 14.966 from his two vaults, beating his friend and Russian teammate Artur Dalaloyan for second place. The bronze went to Ukraine’s Igor Radivilov.

Romanian Marian Dragulescu, 38, a four-time world champion, secured qualification for his fifth Olympics by placing fourth.

Britain won its second gold of the championships as Joe Fraser scored 15 points to win on parallel bars. Ahmet Onder was second for Turkey, with Japan’s Kazuma Kaya third. Max Whitlock won Britain’s first gold medal Saturday on pommel horse.

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