After a 2-12 months Hiatus, Simone Biles Just Won Her twentieth Gold Medal on the World Championships

In 2013, 16-year-old Simone Biles made her Gymnastics World Championships debut in Antwerp, Belgium and brought home her first-ever gold medal. Now, exactly a decade later, she did it again—in the identical city and the identical venue, but with rather a lot more hardware under her belt.

On October 4, Biles won her twentieth World’s gold medal in Antwerp as Team USA clinched their record-breaking seventh consecutive title. Her podium finish on the 2023 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships at age 26 makes her the oldest US woman to earn any World’s medal, in keeping with NBC Sports.

The event also marks a comeback for Biles: Her appearance in Belgium is her first international competition in two years. She withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 resulting from the “twisties”—a potentially dangerous mind-body disconnect during which gymnasts lose spatial awareness midair—and took the time she needed to get well physically and mentally.

“You sort of should take that mental break, because if not, obviously, your body will determine for you, and that’s what mine did in Tokyo,” Biles told Inside Gymnastics Magazine about her time without work. “It was the worst timing, but I’m very joyful what happened simply because I got to go and really deal with myself. And I’m still continuing to work on myself.”

During her hiatus from the game, Biles spoke candidly about her mental health and the importance of prioritizing her emotional well-being. “It’s difficult to discuss the way you’re doing mentally because it’s an invisible injury,” she told Good Housekeeping in 2022. “People can’t see it, so it’s harder to know, but I feel that’s why it’s so essential we feel empowered to open up about it.”

And he or she continued to accomplish that even after she announced her comeback this past summer. When asked how she was handling her return to the game in an Instagram Q&A, she wrote “A number of therapy,” per People. “I am going once per week for nearly two hours. I’ve had a lot trauma, so having the ability to work on among the traumas and work on healing is a blessing.”

While Worlds aren’t over yet—the all-around final shall be held on Friday and individual events are scheduled over the weekend—the competition has already been a successful one. Beyond her medal count, Biles has also etched her name within the history books for another excuse: Within the qualifying rounds on Sunday, Biles became the primary woman to land the Yurchenko double pike vault in competition. The incredibly difficult combination—she performed a roundoff to back handspring onto the apparatus, then flipped twice within the air together with her body folded and legs straight—will now be called the Biles II. It’s the fifth skill named after her, joining two on floor, one on beam, and an earlier one on vault.

So yes, there could also be more records broken and medals won this weekend, but that’s not likely the largest driver for Biles at once.

“I feel what success means to me is slightly bit different than before, because before, everyone defined success for me, even when I had my very own narrative that I wanted,” Biles told Olympics.com before the World Championships. “So, now, it’s just showing up, being in head place, having fun on the market, and whatever happens, happens.”

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