(L-R) Bronze medalist Mai Murakami of Japan, gold medalist Simone Biles and silver medalist and Morgan Hurd celebrate after the women's floor exercise final at the 2018 FIG Artistic Gymnastics Championships on Nov. 3, 2018 in Doha, Qatar.
With six medals at the world championships, four of them gold, Simone Biles’ only worry might be an overweight baggage charge on the long flight home from Doha, Qatar.
The four-time Olympic gold medalist and now 14-time world champion continued to make history with her floor exercise win Saturday, becoming the first woman to medal in every event at a single world championships since Soviet Union’s Yelena Shushunova in 1987. Biles also tied her own record, held by several other athletes, with four gold medals.
Her final medal of the Doha meet also tied her with Russia’s Svetlana Khorkina for 20 career world medals, the most by any woman in history. Biles also became the first four-time world floor champion.
Biles was the expected favorite, as she was the top qualifier and has three prior world floor titles plus the gold medal at the Olympic Games Rio 2016. She was sublime again on Saturday, scoring 14.933 and finishing a full point above second place.
The silver medal belonged to U.S. teammate Morgan Hurd, who went just after Biles, and earned the fifth world championship medal of her career and first on floor. Mai Murakami of Japan was third with 13.866.
Todd Kortemeier is a sportswriter, editor and children’s book author from Minneapolis. He is a contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
