Simone Biles has claimed her eighth national title at the 2023 USA Gymnastics Championships in California over the weekend, breaking records along the way.
No other gymnast in the US – male or female – has won more than seven national titles. Prior to her win on Sunday, she shared the record with Alfred Jochim, who won seven titles between 1925-33.
Now, 90 years later, Biles has won the most national titles out of any gymnast in American history, taking out her eighth all-around title over the weekend.
Biles said she was happy with the win, but felt indifferent about the numbers.
“I’ve been doing it for so long, I feel like I don’t think about the numbers, I think about my performance,” she told an NBC reporter after the win.
“I think overall, I hit 8 for 8 (clean events). So eight, I guess, it’s a lucky number this year.”
During her performance at the event, Biles successfully attempted the Yurchenko double pike, a highly advanced gymnastics floor move. In 2021, she was the first woman to ever land the move.
Ten years after she won her first title at just 16 years of age, Biles is now the oldest woman – at 26 years old – to take out the national championships since USA Gymnastics first launched the event in 1963.
She won four national championships in a row between 2013-2016, as well as the title in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023.
This weekend’s competition is just her second following her withdrawal from five events at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. Biles cited a case of the “twisties”, losing her sense of where she is in the air whilst performing gymnastics routines, as triggering her anxiety and self-doubt, causing her to pull out of the competitions two years ago.
Biles was also involved in the legal proceedings against disgraced former US gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, who was found guilty in 2021 of sexually abusing young gymnasts and was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.. Biles was one of the more than 500 survivors of sexual assault at the hands of Nassar.
Although Biles’ comeback has been epic, it’s still unclear whether the seven-time Olympic medallist – four of which are gold medals – will compete in her third Olympic games next year in Paris, France.
Following the USA National Championships, Biles was named in the women’s senior national team. She is expected to compete in the 2023 FIG World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium at the end of the month.