STUTTGART, Germany (REUTERS) - American Simone Biles landed the triple-double on the floor exercise and the double-double dismount off the balance beam at the world gymnastics championships in Stuttgart, Germany on Saturday (Oct 5) to have two new skills named after her.
The triple-double - a triple-twisting double backflip - on the floor exercise will now officially be named the "Biles II" while the double-double tuck (two flips and two twists) dismount off the beam will simply be called the "Biles".
Gymnasts earn the right to have a skill named after them after they submit it for evaluation and land the move successfully at a major competition.
"I'm pretty pleased because that's how I train beam and it finally felt good to go out there and hit a beam routine... because I feel like every time... I just bomb it," Biles told the Olympic Channel.
"Overall, I still feel like I could do better. My goal going into tonight was to not be great, just to do well. I feel like I accomplished that and made it into finals. Yay!"
The US team topped the qualifying standings with a total of 174.205, followed by China (169.161) and Russia (168.080).
The US, Chinese and Russian women's teams had already earned places at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics while nine other teams - France, Canada, Netherlands, Britain, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Japan and Spain - will join them.
Only the top eight qualify for the team final on Tuesday so Germany, Belgium, Japan and Spain missed out. The leading 24 gymnasts qualify for the individual all-around final on Thursday.
Biles led the individual standings with a total score of 59.432 on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor, followed by compatriot Sunisa Lee (57.166) and France's Melanie de Jesus dos Santos (56.782).
The owner of 20 world medals, including 14 golds, the 22-year-old Biles could end the championships as the most decorated athlete in the competition's history by topping Belarusian Vitaly Scherbo's haul of 23 medals.
Although Biles stepped out of bounds to earn a 0.2 penalty in the floor exercise, she still topped the standings with a score of 14.833 ahead of team mates Lee and Jade Carey.
The double-double dismount on the balance beam also earned her the top spot with a score of 14.800.
In the vault, Carey and Biles led the standings while Belgium's Nina Derwael had the highest score on the uneven bars.
