Simone Biles makes history again, reaffirms status as GOAT

On Friday, Simone Biles won the world all around title, which is a feat in itself, but once again she is breaking records.

A side note about the former record holders:
[Spoiler (click to open)] In 2017, Olympic gold medalist Tatiana Gutsu accused Vitaly Scherbo of raping her at the USSR national team training camp in 1991 when she was only 15 years old. Earlier this year, Larisa Latynina spoke out against Russian athletes competing under a neutral flag at the Olympics due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, calling it “unpatriotic.”

At 26 years old, Simone is the oldest world or Olympic women’s all-around champion since 1962.

Simone’s AA routines (bonus: Daniela Silivas was one of the officials at the medal ceremony)

Only seven American women have ever won the world all around title since the competition began in 1934. Only six women in the world have ever won the world AA title twice (including American Shannon Miller om 1993 and 1994). Svetlana Khorkina was the first to win three times (1997, 2001, 2003). Simone is the only woman who has ever won it six times (and she has won this title at every world championship where she competed).

A reminder about the kind of racist shit Simone dealt with when she was 16 years old:
[Spoiler (click to open)]
When Simone competed at the world championships for the first time in 2013, she won gold in all around and floor, silver on vault, and bronze on beam, becoming the first Black female gymnast to win a world all around title. When Italian gymnast Carlotta Ferlito, who finished 11th in all around and 5th on beam, was asked by a reporter why she thought her beam score was significantly lower than Simone’s, she said, “I told [Vanessa Ferrari] that next time we should also paint our skin black, so then we could win too.”

She also said: “Biles did the most awful performance I have ever seen her do and made the podium because the USA always complains and therefore I and Vanessa are less than a 10th of a point from the podium, fourth and fifth. The judges always protect the Americans.”

Afterward, Italian Gymnastics Federation official David Ciaralli tried to clarify what Carlotta said by issuing a statement which had the opposite effect, showing how casual and prevalent racism in gymnastics was at the time, saying:

“Carlotta was referring to a trend in gymnastics at this moment, which is going towards a technique that opens up new chances to athletes of color (well-known for power)” while penalizing the more artistic Eastern European style that allowed Russians and Romanians to dominate the sport for years. Why aren’t there blacks in swimming? Because the sport doesn’t suit their physical characteristics. Is gymnastics becoming the same thing, to the point of wanting to be colored?”

Carlotta later tweeted an apology: “I want to apologize with the Americans girls. I didn’t want to sound rude or racist. I love Simone and I’m a huge fan of USA gymnastics. I’ve made a mistake, I’m not perfect. I was too nervous and I did not think about what I was saying. I’m just a human. I’m so so sorry.”

Two years later at the 2015 European Championships, Ferlito was excluded from the all-around final because of the two-per-country rule and narrowly missed the beam final. Afterward, she posted on Twitter in Italian, “I am used to being a few tenths out and taking it in the ass. I will overcome these assholes.” She later deleted the tweet and apologized in another tweet, writing, “Under stress, I do the worst of myself. I apologize, I did not want to cause offense and I’m sorry to have been misunderstood. Good luck to all.”

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