Simone Biles wins vault silver medal at World Gymnastics Championships (video)

By Nick ZaccardiOct 11, 2014, 3:54 AM EDT

Simone Biles won her third medal in as many events at the World Gymnastics Championships on Saturday, silver in the vault final.

Biles, 17, led the U.S. to team gold Wednesday and repeated as World all-around champion Friday, when she ran from the podium frightened by a bee. She also won vault silver at the 2013 World Championships, behind McKayla Maroney. Maroney didn’t compete this year after March knee surgery.

North Korea’s Hong Un Jong bettered Biles on Saturday, adding to her 2008 Olympic title in the event. Hong averaged 15.599 over two vaults to Biles’ 15.554. American MyKayla Skinner won bronze, her first individual World Championships medal.

Also Saturday, China went one-two on uneven bars with Yao Jinnan and Huang Huidan. American Ashton Locklear was fourth in her first World Championships. Russian Olympic champion Aliya Mustafina was sixth.

“I need to increase my difficulty level if I want to be in the medals, and I have to add new elements to my routine,” Mustafina said. “It is just very hard to learn new tricks at my age [20].”

Russian Denis Abliazin won men’s floor exercise, two years after taking Olympic bronze on the event. It marked Russia’s first Olympic or Worlds gold medal in men’s gymnastics since Alexei Nemov won the all-around at Sydney 2000. Abliazin also captured still rings bronze later Saturday.

American Jacob Dalton was fourth, one year after taking Worlds silver on floor. Five-time World all-around champion Kohei Uchimura won a floor medal at the last three World Championships and 2012 Olympics but did not qualify for the final in Nanning.

“Last year, I qualified eighth in the floor final and came came away second,” said Dalton, who also qualified in the eighth and final spot this year. “Anything can happen. It didn’t affect me at all. I knew if I went out and did what I can do, I’d be among the top three. I tried. It was close, but not quite.”

Hungary’s Olympic champion Krisztian Berki won his third World title and fifth World medal on pommel horse. Alex Naddour, attempting to become the first U.S. man to win an Olympic or Worlds pommel horse medal since 2006, finished sixth after being second to Berki in qualifying.

Liu Yang reclaimed Chinese dominance on still rings, relegating Brazil’s reigning Olympic and World champion Arthur Zanetti to silver. China had won five straight World titles on rings before Zanetti broke the streak in 2013.

The World Gymnastics Championships finish with five more apparatus finals Sunday, including Biles on balance beam and floor exercise and Uchimura on high bar.

Women’s Vault
Gold: Hong Un Jong (PRK) — 15.599 — 2008 Olympic champion; 2013 World bronze medalist
Silver: Simone Biles (USA) — 15.554 — 2013 World silver medalist
Bronze: MyKayla Skinner (USA) — 15.366
4. Alla Sosnitskaya (RUS) — 14.966
5. Giulia Steingruber (SUI) — 14.716
5. Claudia Fragapane (GBR) — 14.716
7. Alexa Moreno Medina (MEX) — 14.549
8. Thi Ha Thanh Phan (VIE) — 14.37 — 2011 World bronze medalist

Uneven Bars
Gold: Yao Jinnan (CHN) — 15.633
Silver: Huang Huidan (CHN) — 15.566 — 2013 World champion
Bronze: Daria Spiridonova (RUS) — 15.283
4. Ashton Locklear (USA) — 15.266
5. Becky Downie (GBR) — 15.166
6. Aliya Mustafina (RUS) — 15.1 — 2012 Olympic champion; 2010 World silver medalist; 2013 World bronze medalist
7. Lisa Katherina Hill (GER) — 14.333
8. Ruby Harrold (GBR) — 13.666

Men’s Floor Exercise
Gold: Denis Abliazin (RUS) — 15.75 — 2012 Olympic bronze medalist
Silver: Kenzo Shirai (JPN) — 15.733 — 2013 World champion
Bronze: Diego Hypolito (BRA) — 15.7 — 2005, 2007 World champion; 2006 World silver medalist; 2011 World bronze medalist
4. Jacob Dalton (USA) — 15.6 — 2013 World silver medalist
5. Kim Hansol (KOR) — 15.5
6. Ryohei Kato (JPN) — 15.466
7. Eleftherios Kosmidis (GRE) — 15.05 — 2010 World champion
8. Rayderley Santana (ESP) — 13.9

Pommel Horse
Gold: Krisztian Berki (HUN) — 16.033 — 2012 Olympic champion; 2010, 2011 World champion; 2007, 2009 World silver medalist
Silver: Filip Ude (CRO) — 15.783 — 2008 Olympic silver medalist
Bronze: Cyril Tommasone (FRA) — 15.6 — 2011 World silver medalist
4. Saso Bertoncelj (SLO) — 15.533
5. Robert Seligman (CRO) — 15.4
6. Alex Naddour (USA) — 15.3
7. Andrey Likhovitskiy (BLR) — 15.2
8. Daniel Keatings (GBR) — 15.133

Still Rings
Gold: Liu Yang (CHN) — 15.933
Silver: Arthur Zanetti (BRA) — 15.733 — 2012 Olympic champion; 2013 World champion; 2011 World silver medalist
Bronze: You Hao (CHN) — 15.7
Bronze: Denis Abliazin (RUS) — 15.7
5. Samir Ait Said (FRA) — 15.566
6. Eleftherios Petrounias (GRE) — 15.4
7. Courtney Tulloch (GBR) — 15.4
8. Nikita Ignatyev (RUS) — 15.266

Kohei Uchimura’s coach: ‘He is not a human being’

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IOC recommends how Russia, Belarus athletes can return as neutrals

By OlympicTalkMar 28, 2023, 8:45 PM EDT

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The IOC updated its recommendations to international sports federations regarding Russian and Belarusian athletes, advising that they can return to competitions outside of the Olympics as neutral athletes in individual events and only if they do not actively support the war in Ukraine. Now, it’s up to those federations to decide if and how they will reinstate the athletes as 2024 Olympic qualifying heats up.

The IOC has not made a decision on the participation of Russian or Belarusian athletes for the Paris Games and will do so “at the appropriate time,” IOC President Thomas Bach said Tuesday.

Most international sports federations for Olympic sports banned Russian and Belarusian athletes last year following IOC recommendations to do so after the invasion of Ukraine.

Bach was asked Tuesday what has changed in the last 13 months that led to the IOC updating its recommendations.

He reiterated previous comments that, after the invasion and before the initial February 2022 recommendations, some governments refused to issue visas for Russians and Belarusians to compete, and other governments threatened withdrawing funding from athletes who competed against Russians and Belarusians. He also said the safety of Russians and Belarusians at competitions was at risk at the time.

Bach said that Russians and Belarusians have been competing in sports including tennis, the NHL and soccer (while not representing their countries) and that “it’s already working.”

“The question, which has been discussed in many of these consultations, is why should what is possible in all these sports not be possible in swimming, table tennis, wrestling or any other sport?” Bach said.

Bach then read a section of remarks that a United Nations cultural rights appointee made last week.

“We have to start from agreeing that these states [Russia and Belarus] are going to be excluded,” Bach read, in part. “The issue is what happens with individuals. … The blanket prohibition of Russian and Belarusian athletes and artists cannot continue. It is a flagrant violation of human rights. The idea is not that we are going to recognize human rights to people who are like us and with whom we agree on their actions and on their behavior. The idea is that anyone has the right not to be discriminated on the basis of their passport.”

The IOC’s Tuesday recommendations included not allowing “teams of athletes” from Russia and Belarus to return.

If Russia continues to be excluded from team sports and team events, it could further impact 2024 Olympic qualification.

The international basketball federation (FIBA) recently set an April 28 deadline to decide whether to allow Russia to compete in an Olympic men’s qualifying tournament. For women’s basketball, the draw for a European Olympic qualifying tournament has already been made without Russia.

In gymnastics, the ban has already extended long enough that, under current rules, Russian gymnasts cannot qualify for men’s and women’s team events at the Paris Games, but can still qualify for individual events if the ban is lifted.

Gymnasts from Russia swept the men’s and women’s team titles in Tokyo, where Russians in all sports competed for the Russian Olympic Committee rather than for Russia due to punishment for the nation’s doping violations. There were no Russian flags or anthems, conditions that the IOC also recommends for any return from the current ban for the war in Ukraine.

Seb Coe, the president of World Athletics, said last week that Russian and Belarusian athletes remain banned from track and field for the “foreseeable future.”

World Aquatics, the international governing body for swimming, diving and water polo, said after the IOC’s updated recommendations that it will continue to “consider developments impacting the situation” of Russian and Belarusian athletes and that “further updates will be provided when appropriate.”

The IOC’s sanctions against Russia and Belarus and their governments remain in place, including disallowing international competitions to be held in those countries.

On Monday, Ukraine’s sports minister said in a statement that Ukraine “strongly urges” that Russian and Belarusian athletes remain banned.

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Summer McIntosh breaks 400m freestyle world record, passes Ledecky, Titmus

By OlympicTalkMar 28, 2023, 8:10 PM EDT

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Summer McIntosh broke the women’s 400m freestyle world record at Canada’s swimming trials on Tuesday night, becoming at 16 the youngest swimmer to break a world record in an Olympic program event since Katie Ledecky a decade ago.

McIntosh clocked 3 minutes, 56.08 seconds in Toronto. Australian Ariarne Titmus held the previous record of 3:56.40, set last May. Before that, Ledecky held the record since 2014, going as low as 3:56.46.

“Going into tonight, I didn’t think the world record was a possibility, but you never know,” McIntosh, who had quotes from Ledecky on her childhood bedroom wall, said in a pool-deck interview moments after the race.

McIntosh’s previous best time was 3:59.32 from last summer’s Commonwealth Games. She went into Tuesday the fourth-fastest woman in history behind Titmus, Ledecky and Italian Federica Pellegrini.

She is also the third-fastest woman in history in the 400m individual medley and the 11th-fastest in the 200m butterfly, two events she won at last June’s world championships. She is the world junior record holder in those events, too.

MORE: McIntosh chose swimming and became Canada’s big splash

McIntosh, Titmus and Ledecky could go head-to-head-to-head in the 400m free at the world championships in July and at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Titmus is the reigning Olympic champion. Ledecky is the reigning world champion, beating McIntosh by 1.24 seconds last June while Titmus skipped the meet.

The last time the last three world record holders in an Olympic program event met in the final of a major international meet was the 2012 Olympic men’s 100m breaststroke (Brendan Hansen, Kosuke Kitajima, Brenton Rickard).

Ledecky, whose best events are the 800m and 1500m frees, broke her first world record in 2013 at 16 years and 4 months old.

McIntosh is 16 years and 7 months old and trains in Sarasota, Florida, which is 160 miles down Interstate 75 from Ledecky in Gainesville.

McIntosh, whose mom swam at the 1984 Olympics and whose sister competed at last week’s world figure skating championships, is the youngest individual world champion in swimming since 2011.

In 2021, at age 14, she became the youngest swimmer to race an individual Olympic final since 2008, according to Olympedia.org. She was fourth in the 400m free at the Tokyo Games.

NBC Olympic research contributed to this report.

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