Source: Ezra Shaw / Getty
Sunday night, Biles
won the all-around title at the U.S. Gymnastics Championship, exactly 10 years since winning the title for the first time.
To make the moment even more harmonious, this marks her eighth win, the most of any gymnast, and beating out Alfred Jochim’s record of seven.
Of course, at 26, she’s also the oldest person –man or woman — to win all-around national titles. Biles finished the day with a total score of 118.40, nearly a full four points from second-place holder Shilese Jones.
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“I think it feels really special. I’m at eight. I’ve been doing it for so long. I feel like I don’t think about numbers; I think about my performance,” Biles told
NBC after her win. “And I think overall, I hit eight for eight. It’s eight, I guess it’s a lucky number this year.”
Biles had her best scores on the floor performance, bean, and vault, which helped her secure her victory and mark a decade that Biles has been dominating the U.S. Championships. After her first win in 2013, she completed a fourpeat through 2016. Then she got right back to hoarding trophies in 2018, 2019, and again in 2021.
It’s impressive that Biles has been able to dominate a sport while still taking breaks, including withdrawing from the world’s biggest state of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games, for struggling with the “twisties,” a common diagnosis for gymnasts who temporarily struggle with their balance.
She’d later thank
Naomi Osaka for influencing her and cited mental health as another reason she stepped back from competing in Tokyo.
“I say put mental health first. Because if you don’t, then you’re not going to enjoy your sport and you’re not going to succeed as much as you want to. So it’s OK sometimes to even sit out the big competitions to focus on yourself, because it shows how strong of a competitor and person that you really are — rather than just battle through it,”
she said at the time.
We just can’t wait to see what she does at the
Paris Olympics… if she decides to participate. When asked if she’d compete in the City of Love, she said she’s keeping her decision private for now.
See how hyped
X, formerly known as Twitter, was about Biles’ historic win below.
