Blakely vaults out of the shadow of Biles for all-around world title

American Skye Blakely kept her nerve on her closing routine on Friday to take her first solo gold in the individual all-around competition at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam.

The 21-year Texan finished ahead of teenagers Liudmila Roshchina and Qinqin Ke. 

Blakely had previously collected two team golds, the second in 2023 in a quartet led by star gymnast Simone Biles, who is absent from Rotterdam and has left the future of her career in doubt. 

Blakely has often been hampered by injuries. In 2021, a torn ligament in her elbow forced her to withdraw from the Tokyo Games. 

History repeated itself in June 2024: during the US Olympic trials, just as she had cemented her place among the favourites for Paris, another injury – this time to her Achilles tendon – ruled her out of the Olympics. 

Having topped the qualifying round on Monday, Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour had to settle for fourth after almost missing the springboard in her opening event, the vault. She managed to complete her leap but by sacrificing difficulty and, despite strong showings in the three remaining events, finished fourth.

As the second-best qualifier, Blakely went second last, ahead of Nemour. 

After 18-year-old Russian Roshchina scored 13,400 and Chinese 16-year-old Ke 13,266, the American started her routine knowing a safe routine would win. 

She scored 12.933 for an aggregate of 55.733 with Roshchina totalling 55.199.

Ke finished with 55.032 to edge Nemour by 0.034 of a point.

pb/bsp