Simone Biles Breaks 90-year-record With Eight All-around Title Win At US Championships

Simone Biles is proving once more that she is the greatest gymnast of all time, and fans cannot get enough!

As the world is aware, the award-winning athlete made a glorious comeback to competitive gymnastics earlier this month, with an unsurprising win at the 2023 U.S. Classic following a nearly two-year hiatus.

Weeks after the feat, Biles added one more indomitable win by breaking the nine-decade record for the most all-around titles, achieving an outstanding eighth-all-around title at the U.S. Championships.

26-year-old Biles is making her way towards next year's Paris Olympics as she has accomplished a series of wins since returning to gymnastics.

The legendary gymnast recently won "a record-setting eighth all-around title" at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, a decade after dominating the industry as a teenage phenomenon.

The seven-time Olympic medallist achieved an all-around two-day total of 118.40, four points ahead of runner-up Shilese Jones, while Florida junior Leanne Wong came in third, boosting her chances of making it into the U.S. world championship team.

As the audience witnessed, Biles captivated the SAP Center in San Jose, California, with a soaring floor routine, including an unshakable landing, Aljazeera reports. That was her final event of the competition, which prompted overjoyed fans to their feet as she scored 15.400 points, breaking the record for most all-around titles for a man or woman, set by Alfred Jochim.

Jochim won seven titles between 1925 and 1933 when the Amateur Athletics Union ran the championships, and in 2021, Biles matched his record. The Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient's new record marks her second win since her return, almost two years after bowing out of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics because of mental health issues.

Many might recall that she withdrew due to "twisties," a term used to describe when gymnasts lose their sense of where they are in the air.  Following the U.S. Championships triumph, Biles will be heading to Antwerp in late September, where she will likely add to her collection of medals — 25 in total Ω— from her successful career.

Biles' new impressive record and achievement bring to mind her victorious win at the U.S. Classics. She bagged an all-around score of 59.10, which was a full five points clear of runner-up Leanne Wong — and more than two points higher than the total with which Brazil's Rebeca Andrade claimed the 2022 world championship.

While talking to the press after the successful event, Biles said, "Did it look like I was having fun? Oh, thank God. I thought I was going to – bricks, but that's good."

The four-time Olympic gold medallist mentioned that she felt really good "about her mental and physical state," adding, "I still think there are some things to work on, [mistakes] throughout the night in my routines. But for the first meet back, I would say it went pretty well."

Viewers of the competition would certainly agree with her as they saw her pull at least one of the skills that bears her name, as well as the well-known Yurchenko double pike vault.

Biles explained that she always planned on returning to competition since her Tokyo Olympics episode, as she divuged, "It was like a mental injury, you know? So something like that, with the proper work and the proper help, I knew I could come back and hopefully have a shot."

As for how she felt twisting in the air given her past "twisties" experience, the Ohio native answered, "I still get a little bit nervous, but I think it's just subconscious. Other than that, I know my body is capable and prepared and all of that stuff, so I just have to trust my training."

Before her successful return, Biles did some opening up to her Instagram fans, pointing out her most challenging event amid training for the 2024 Olympics.

During a Q&A  session, she answered a curious follower wanted to know her "hardest event to come back to" by sharing:

“It’s always bars… mentally & physically – but this go around…. BABY!!! Twisting on any event. ? iykyk. Mainly because when the twisties happen, you go right into the gym & work on it." 

The March-born gymnast then noted that she took more than a year off, so returning to twisting in the air made her "petrified." Still, she assured her supporters that she was fine and twisting again, adding, "No worries. All is good."