INDIANAPOLIS – Simone Biles was so good in her pursuit of a third national title that she surprised even herself. “It’s really exciting; I keep shocking myself every year, it’s weird,” she said of her latest achievement.
Biles became the first American woman in 23 years to win three all-around national titles Saturday night at the 2015 P&G Gymnastics Championships.
The last woman to win three titles, Kim Zmeskal, did so leading into her first Olympic appearance, a feat Biles is now looking to emulate at next year’s Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
“It’s amazing just because I know she took the same path and it led her to the Olympics, so I feel pretty good knowing I’ve achieved what she’s achieved,” Biles said of the 1991 world all-around champion.
Biles won her latest U.S. crown with a two-day score of 124.100, an impressive 4.95 points higher than second-place finisher Maggie Nichols. For comparison, her last two U.S. wins were by margins of 0.2 points in 2013 and 4.25 points in 2014. Her win was highlighted by a near-perfect 9.9 execution score on vault.
Clearly, the gap between Biles and everyone else in the country – or world, for that matter – is rapidly increasing. “It’s truly (a matter of wanting) to be the best version of me and I don’t want to replicate others,” Biles said. “Because a lot of people compare me to other people a bunch, but I just want to go out there and I just want to be Simone.”
November 5, 2024