Simone Biles wins 6th U.S. gymnastics title, defies gravity with never-attempted moves just because she can
Simone Biles won her sixth U.S. women's gymnastics national title on Sunday night, her overall two-day score — 118.500 — five points higher than No. 2 Sunisa Lee and about eight points ahead of third-place finisher Grace McCallum. Winning was nothing new for Biles, 22, who has triumphed in every meet she's participated in since the 2013 nationals. "But a move on floor exercise so difficult no other woman has done it and very few men even try it?" says Nancy Armour at USA Today. "Now that made it a night to remember."
Biles nailed that gravity-defying move, her triple-twisting double flip, during her floor routine Sunday night. The" triple-double" was "the exclamation point of another dazzling performance that showcased just how wide the gulf between Biles and the rest of the world has become," The Associated Press says. She got "so much height on the move the folks in the first half-dozen rows had to crane their necks to see her," Armour adds. "Someone could have parked an SUV on the floor and Biles would have cleared it easily. Take that, NBA Dunk Contest participants."
And the triple-double was the second move no woman had even tried before in competition. On Friday night, Biles landed a double-twisting, double-somersault ("double-double") dismount on balance beam.
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Biles took the top scores on floor, vault, and balance beam events, and placed third on bars, her least-favorite event and her final dismount of the 2018 nationals.
"When she came back to gymnastics after taking a year off following the Rio Olympics, it wasn't because she wanted more medals or had anything left to prove" — she has more titles than any gymnast, male or female, and plenty of Olympic gold, Armour writes. "No, Biles wanted to challenge herself, to see how much she could wring out of her otherworldly talent." That "pursuit is symbolized by the idea to include the triple-double," AP adds. "Mathematically, she didn't need to add it to maintain her advantage over the rest of the world. Instead, she did it just to see if she could."
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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