10/24/2026 10:50:00
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10/24 10:49 CDT Newly minted all-around champ Skye Blakely adds two more medals
at world gymnastics championships
Newly minted all-around champ Skye Blakely adds two more medals at world
gymnastics championships
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) --- Newly minted all-around champion Skye Blakely
added to her medal haul at the world gymnastics championships, earning bronze
on vault and uneven bars during the event finals on Saturday.
The 21-year-old from Dallas, who soared to gold in the all-around on Friday
after recovering from injuries that wrecked her Olympic hopes in 2021 and again
in 2024, hardly looked tired in what has quickly become the meet of her life.
Blakely averaged a score of 14.166 on her pair of vaults to share the podium
with gold medalist Rebeca Andrade of Brazil and American teammate Claire Pease.
Andrade, the Olympic champion on vault and the Olympic silver medalist in the
all-around in Paris behind Simone Biles, edged Pease for gold. The 27-year-old
Andrade, who is competing as an event specialist at the moment while eyeing a
run at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, averaged 14.666, a bit ahead of Pease at
14.233.
Kaylia Nemour of Algeria recovered from a misstep on vault in the all-around
finals on Friday that cost her a medal to easily defend her gold on uneven
bars. Nemour's intricate and technically demanding routine --- perhaps the
hardest currently being done by any gymnast, male or female, on any event ---
earned her a 15.333, the highest score of the day.
Helen Kervic of Germany captured the silver at 14.833, with Blakely in third at
14.600.
Blakely, who joined Olympic champions Biles and Nastia Liukin as well as
Rebecca Bross as the only American women to win at least four medals at a
single worlds, will have a chance to add to her medal total on Sunday when she
competes in the beam final.
American Fred Richard helped the U.S. men's team earn a bit of redemption after
a shaky seventh-place finish in the team final by edging Jake Jarman of Britain
for gold in the floor exercise. The 22-year-old Richard, who has spent the last
several years trying to raise the profile of the men's side of the sport
through social media, posted a 14.633 to give the Americans their third
individual gold in the last two years.
Jarman, who came in as the defending champion on the event, put together a more
difficult routine but was nicked by judges for his execution. His 14.600 wasn't
quite enough to knock Richard off the top of the podium.
Carlos Yulo, the reigning Olympic champion on floor, sat during his second
tumbling pass and finished eighth in the eight-man final. Arsenii Dukhno of
Russia, who topped qualifying, bounded out of bounds after overcooking a
tumbling sequence and wound up sixth.
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