Skye Blakely wins world all-around title in Rotterdam after comeback

Skye Blakely, the 21-year-old American, won the women’s all-around title at the World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam on Friday, scoring 55.733 points across four apparatus to claim the gold medal.

Blakely’s victory completed a comeback from a ruptured right achilles tendon sustained during floor exercise training just two days before the US trials for the 2024 Paris Games; that injury required surgery and ended the season in which she had finished runner-up to Simone Biles at the national championships. It was the second major setback of her career after she tore an elbow ligament while warming up for the Tokyo Olympic trials.

Entering Friday’s final as the second-ranked qualifier, Blakely produced assured routines on the uneven bars and balance beam and then protected a lead of more than a point on the floor exercise, delivering under pressure in the medal-deciding session.

Russia’s Liudmila Roshchina took silver with a total of 55.199, while China’s Ke Qinqin claimed bronze on 55.032; Blakely became the first American to win the world all-around crown since Simone Biles in 2023 and extended a US streak of podium finishes at every Olympics and world championships since 2003.

The University of Florida junior reflected on her journey after qualifying in Rotterdam, saying: “I already cried, but it just means the world to me,” Blakely said after qualifying in Rotterdam. “Knowing how much I’ve been through – two major surgeries, a lot of hardships, ups and downs.”

Her triumph in Rotterdam came little more than two years after the achilles rupture and secures the sport’s biggest individual prize outside the Olympics.