Gymnast Simone Biles Makes History, Winning Record Eighth U.S. Championship
Simone Biles made history Sunday night.
The U.S. gymnast won her record eighth national championship title at the SAP Center in San Jose, California. The win comes 10 years after Biles earned her first national title at age 16.
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Biles earned a two-day all-around score of 118.40, four points ahead of runner-up Shilese Jones. Leanne Wong came in third.
Biles, 26, is now the oldest woman to win a national title in the 60 years since USA Gymnastics organized the event. With Sunday’s win, she surpassed Alfred Jochim, who won seven titles from 1925 to 1933.
“I don’t think about numbers,” Biles said, as quoted by the Associated Press. “I think about my performance. And I think overall, I hit 8 for 8. I guess it’s a lucky number this year.”
Biles took a two-year break from the sport following the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she came in as the frontrunner in four events but withdrew from competition as she struggled with the “twisties,” a gymnastics term for a feeling of being disoriented and losing awareness of balance and a sense of where the ground is while doing aerial maneuvers. She sought therapy and became a mental health advocate following her experience.
Next up for Biles is the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.
Should she move forward to the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, it would mark her third Olympics.
The four-day U.S. gymnastics championship aired live across NBC, CNBC and Peacock.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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