Skye Blakely won the all-around at the World Gymnastics Championships — the biggest individual title in the sport outside of the Olympics — capping a comeback from a ruptured Achilles at the 2024 Olympic Trials.
Blakely, a 21-year-old University of Florida junior, totaled 55.733 points in Rotterdam, Netherlands, prevailing by .534 over Liudmila Roshchina from Russia. Ke Qinqin of China earned bronze.
In 2024, Blakely was runner-up to Simone Biles at the U.S. Championships, moving into prime position to make the five-woman Olympic team.
But two days before Olympic Trials, she ruptured her right Achilles while training on floor exercise, a season-ending injury that required surgery.
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A day after the injury, she posted, “I’m devastated and heartbroken but I believe everything happens for a reason. I was so close to reaching my dream but this injury was unavoidable. I had an amazing season that I am extremely grateful for. the plans we have for ourselves aren’t always the plans God has for us. I’m going to keep my chin high and be proud of the statement I have made for myself these past couple years. I’ll be back.”
She did return, making it to her third consecutive World Championships in 2025. But she didn't get back to all-around competition until this year.
She was tied for the lead after the first day at the Xfinity U.S. Championships in August, then dropped to seventh overall after day two. She still made the team for worlds and placed second in all-around qualifying in Rotterdam.
“I already cried, but it just means the world to me,” Blakely, who also tore an elbow ligament warming up for the Tokyo Olympic Trials, said after qualifying last Sunday. “Knowing how much I’ve been through — two major surgeries, a lot of hardships, ups and downs.”
On Friday, Blakely stuck her landing on the uneven bars, her second event, and then nailed a clutch balance beam routine on her third. She went into her last event, floor exercise, with a 1.001-point lead. It held up.
Blakely extended a U.S. streak of putting at least one woman on every Olympic and world all-around podium dating to 2003 — a run of 24 consecutive global championships.
Blakely is the seventh American woman to win the world all-around title in that stretch after Chellsie Memmel (2005), Shawn Johnson (2007), Bridget Sloan (2009), Jordyn Wieber (2011), Biles (nine times) and Morgan Hurd (2017).
Algerian Kaylia Nemour, who had the top score in qualifying, lost 1.4 points of difficulty on her first event by not doing her planned vault. She overstepped her run up and missed the springboard. Nemour rebounded to finish fourth overall, .034 out of bronze-medal position.
Claire Pease, the other American in the field, fell off the balance beam on her second event, two days after totaling 56.099 points in the team final, the highest all-around score of the entire competition. She ended up seventh.
None of the 2024 Olympic all-around medalists were in this year’s field with Biles and Suni Lee not competing this season and Brazilian Rebeca Andrade doing strictly balance beam and vault at these worlds.
Angelina Melnikova, the 2021 and 2025 World all-around champion, was one of a group of Russian gymnasts who were denied a visa by Dutch authorities.
Worlds continue Saturday with the first of two days of individual apparatus finals, live on Peacock and NBCSN at 8 a.m. ET.