Skye Blakely wins the world all-around title, then takes two more bronze medals in Rotterdam

A world title on Friday

Skye Blakely won the women's all-around at the world gymnastics championships in Rotterdam on Friday, 23 October, scoring 55.733 points across four apparatuses. Russia's Liudmila Roshchina took silver with 55.199 and China's Ke Qinqin bronze with 55.032. It was Blakely's first individual world title, after team golds at the 2022 and 2023 championships. Entering the final as the second-best qualifier on 55.465, she trailed Algeria's Kaylia Nemour, the pre-meet favourite. Nemour scored just 12.366 on vault after an early error, recovered with the day's best bars and beam scores, and finished fourth, 0.034 points off the podium. Italy's Giulia Perotti placed 10th with 54.098 and Sofia Tonelli 14th with 52.666, both in their first world all-around final.

Near misses and injuries

Individual recognition had been a long time coming. At the 2019 Junior World Championships she finished fourth on uneven bars and fifth on floor. At her senior debut in Liverpool in 2022 she qualified second for the beam final, fell during her routine and finished fifth. In Antwerp in 2023 she posted the eighth-best bars qualifying score but missed the final under the rule limiting each country to two gymnasts. Injuries then twice ended her Olympic hopes: a torn ligament in her left elbow at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic trials, and a ruptured right Achilles tendon during floor training in Minneapolis two days before the 2024 trials.

Still coming to terms with the result, Blakely reflected on the long wait for an individual medal.

I used to flip through the magazines and dream of moments like this.

Two more medals on Saturday

On Saturday, 24 October, Blakely added two bronze medals. She averaged 14.166 on her vaults, behind Brazil's Rebeca Andrade (14.666) and American teammate Claire Pease (14.233). Andrade, the Olympic vault champion, returned to the top after a 22-month break that followed the Paris Games. On uneven bars, Nemour won gold with 15.333, Helen Kevric of Germany took silver with 14.833 and Blakely finished third with 14.600. Kevric, an 18-year-old European champion from Stuttgart, won her first world medal on her world championship debut and was overwhelmed afterwards.

It is just extremely amazing. I still can't really believe it. It all happened super fast.

Other finals and what comes next

Fred Richard of the United States won the floor exercise with 14.633, ahead of Britain's Jake Jarman (14.600) and Israel's Artem Dolgopyat. Richard, 22, had also won his first world title. Armenia's Hamlet Manukyan took the vault gold, and China's Xingyu Lan won the rings with 14.766. The US women had lost their run of seven straight world team titles to China on Wednesday, 21 October, finishing second in the team final. Blakely's next competition is the balance beam final on Sunday, 25 October. Her results this week strengthen her position heading toward the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, where she hopes to make her Olympic debut.