Skye Blakely caps remarkable injury comeback with world gymnastics all-around title

Skye Blakely completed a sensational comeback from a ruptured achilles tendon to win the women’s all-around title at the World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam on Friday, claiming the biggest individual prize in the sport outside the Olympics.

The 21-year-old American scored 55.733 points across four apparatus to finish ahead of Russia’s Liudmila Roshchina (55.199), with China’s Ke Qinqin taking bronze (55.032).

Blakely’s triumph came little more than two years after her Olympic ambitions were shattered when she ruptured her right achilles during floor exercise training, just two days before the US trials for the 2024 Paris Games. The injury required surgery and ended a season in which she had finished runner-up to Simone Biles at the national championships.

It was the second major setback of her career after she tore an elbow ligament while warming up for the Tokyo Olympic trials.

“I already cried, but it just means the world to me,” Blakely said after qualifying in Rotterdam. “Knowing how much I’ve been through – two major surgeries, a lot of hardships, ups and downs.”

Blakely entered Friday’s final as the second-ranked qualifier and delivered under pressure, producing assured routines on uneven bars and balance beam before protecting a lead of more than a point on floor exercise.

The University of Florida junior became the first American to win the world all-around crown since Biles in 2023, extending a US streak of podium finishes at every Olympics and world championships since 2003.