Biles has placed only second or third in the vault event at the past three World Championships.
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Biles will face off against competitors from all over the world including Canada, China, India, North Korea, Russia, Switzerland, and Uzbekistan.
Simone Biles remained golden at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Coming into the vault competition, Biles, 19, was also expected to face tough challenges from North Korea’s Hong Un Jong – the 2008 gold medalist in this event – as well as Canada’s Shallon Olsen, 16. Four years ago during the London Games, she went home without a medal in the all-around competition despite being tied for third.
During the event, each gymnast performed twice on the vault, and their two scores were averaged to get their overall score. Vault was the lone holdout, with Biles finishing with bronze. “She’s one of my role models, and I don’t think there’s anyone I’d rather share the podium with”.
For her next vault, Biles turned to a Cheng – a hard vault that, compared to the Amanar, is worth an extra tenth of a point on the judges’ scale – and performed it almost flawlessly. When she touched the wall at the end of the race, her expression of pure shock and glee immediately went viral. She stuck the landing with a huge grin, and the announcers declared her the victor even before her score came in. She’d won the gold!
The event is composed of two parts – Biles scored 15.900 on her first and 16.033 on her second for a combined score of 15.9666, making her the clear victor, despite the fact that her opponents attempted more complicated routines.
The Texan beat her US teammate Aly Raisman, and Aliya Mustafina from Russian Federation to take the gold.
The 19-year-old Texan led the USA women’s team to a record-margin victory in Tuesday’s team final and then followed that up two days later by outclassing the competition for gold in the individual all around. The gold also gives Biles 17 world championship or Olympic medals, the most ever by an American woman.
The vault event was totally Simone Biles’ to lose, as the 19-year-old went into the competition with a almost flawless score in the qualifiers of 16.050. This girl is on. fire.
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American Sam Mikulak finished eighth, his routine disrupted by an explosion from the rowdy crowd inside Rio Olympic Arena, which burst into applause when Mikulak – going last – made a mistake to assure the Brazilians of two medals. Instead of doing two-and-a-half twists like in the Amanar, Hong was doing three full twists.
