Once again, Byers won the title with ease.
Although the 2019 Gymnastics World Championships are far from over, it may now be certain that this will be another World Championship that will make Simon Byers even greater. With two gold medals in the women's team and the women's all-around event, the 22-year-old Biles has won 22 World Championship medals, which has also enabled her to surpass the "ice beauty" Khorkina as the female player with the most medals in the World Championships. Just from the number of medals, Byers is indeed the most successful player in the women's gymnastics field, but whether Biles, who may continue to succeed in the future, is better than Khorkina and other women's players, and whether it proves that the direction of women's gymnastics development is correct, may still be a question.
Easily defended
Women's all-around podium.
In the early morning of October 11, Beijing time, the women's all-around final of the 2019 Gymnastics World Championships entered the final "decisive battle" moment, and what made people slightly "disappointed" was that although Biles had not yet appeared, the suspense of the championship was actually not large. After all, with his three previous performances, Byers only needed to score 12.301 points in the free gymnastics event, which was enough to win the final championship.
It only takes 12.301 points to win the championship, which makes Biles "smile like a flower" before her free exercise starts, and in the applause of the audience, The easy-going Biles did not live up to the support of the audience for her. At 14.400 points, Simon Byers won the final championship with the highest score of the free gymnastics event of the night, and "lightly won" Tang Xijing with an advantage of more than 2 points.
Byers' victory is indeed undisputed, vaulting, Biles scored the highest score of the night; on the uneven bars, Byers' score ranked third in the whole field; balance beam project, Byers scored the highest score in the whole game. In the women's all-around in "only" four events, three events scored first, and the other event also ranked in the top three, and it is completely unrealistic to say that there are any other players who may pose some threats to Byers.
Counting the two gold medals (women's team and all-around) that have been won at this World Championship, Biles, who made her debut at the 2013 World Championships in Antwerp, has achieved an impressive result of 16 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze on the stage of the World Championships, becoming the female player with the most medals in the World Championships, and Holkina, who once topped the women's medal list of the World Championships with 20 medals, even said that she really hopes that time can compete with Byers.
Khorkina is certainly "dreaming", but for Byers today, she is likely to become the player with the most medals in the World Championships after the end of this World Championship. So far, sherbo of the former Soviet Union has won a total of 23 world championship medals, and Biles, who ranked first in two preliminaries in four individual events, surpassed this legend in this tournament, which is really not an insurmountable task.
Always successful
Byers has won the gold medal in the women's all-around at the World Championships five times.
At the 2013 World Championships in Antwerp, Byers, who had already made his debut in the youth competition, made his world championship debut, that is, this competition, and the fledgling Byers had "shocked" the entire gymnastics world.
In the individual all-around competition, Biles successfully won the championship with a margin of nearly 1 point, and Biles, who advanced to the final in all four individual events, won medals in all three events except the medal of the "missed" uneven bars - vault silver medal, balance beam bronze medal, and free gymnastics gold medal.
At the 2014 Nanning World Championships, Biles's performance was more courageous, the women's team gold medal, all-around gold medal, vault silver medal, balance beam gold medal and free gymnastics gold medal, the U.S. gymnastics team with 4 gold medals topped the medal table, Biles is obviously the first hero.
2015 Glasgow World Championships, 2018 Doha World Championships, Biles have won 4 gold medals, and counting the ongoing World Championships, the US gymnastics team can become the third most gold medal team in the history of the World Championships with 55 gold, 45 silver and 38 bronze results.
Of course, Byers' success is not only on the field of the World Championships, the gymnastics competition of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Biles is also the brightest star, 4 gold medals, 1 bronze medal, the 4 gold medals of the AMERICAN gymnastics team are all related to Biles.
From 2013 to 2019, Biles' gymnastics career has been a success, and almost all the other athletes in the World Championships and Olympic Games she played in can only be her foil. To put it irresponsibly but with some truth: "Being in the same era as Byers is perhaps the sadness of all female gymnasts except her".
Khorkina is equally "invincible"
Khorkina was once the strongest in women's gymnastics.
Byers not only makes the active female gymnasts feel a little sad, but also makes her predecessors feel sad, the reason has been said before, Byers has surpassed many predecessors, including Khorkina, to become the female player who has won the most medals at the World Championships, from the perspective of "winner is king", Biles does make all female players feel sad.
Svetlana Khorkina, the former "ice beauty" of the women's gymnastics arena, is perhaps a familiar and unfamiliar name for all gymnastics enthusiasts. Familiar, because the "Ice Beauty" was once another great player like Byers; strange, because since the 2004 Athens Olympics, women's gymnastics "in the jianghu", Khorkina is only left with "legends".
Khorkina, who is 1.65 meters tall and has a high appearance, began her world championship "hegemony" from 1994, and in the long 11 years from 1994 to 2004, Khorkina won 2 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze in the Olympic Games, and won 9 gold, 8 silver and 3 bronze in the World Championships.
Although Khorkina has long since bid farewell to the gymnastics arena and even turned to politics, her "dominant" performance in gymnastics, especially in the high and low bars events, was once the brightest scenery for women's gymnastics. Of course, more importantly, as long as there is khorkina's game, she is destined to become the focus of the whole game, although this is also the treatment that Biles can enjoy today, but everyone's attention to these two players is obviously different.
The reason why everyone pays attention to Khorkina is, first of all, of course, because of Khorkina's achievements, in addition, Khorkina's beauty on the field – elegance and artistic expression – is also the reason why she always attracts everyone's attention. Khorkina has been retired for many years, but looking back at the gymnastics arena in recent years, she really can't find too many "big long legs" like her.
As for everyone's attention to Byers, in addition to the same results expectations, how difficult it will be for her to complete and whether she will be breathtaking again is the most critical. This is the fundamental difference between Byers and Khorkina.
Which is better?
Byers will also go on to win the title.
In other words, Khorkina and Byers are indeed two extremely successful players in the women's gymnastics arena, but there is a fundamental difference between the two, in which Khorkina conquers the referee and the audience with "beauty" - beauty and artistic expression, etc., and Byers conquers the referee and all the audience with "difficulty" - even as masculine difficulty.
Khorkina and her previous era, "beauty" is actually the most significant feature of women's gymnastics, but it is a little regrettable that Khorkina may be the last representative of the women's gymnastics arena with "beauty" as "beauty", with the "ice beauty" in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games with a not very good result ended their gymnastics career, women's gymnastics began to develop in the direction of "difficult".
From this point of view, Byers may be the "product" of the emergence of the times, in the context of all female gymnasts are constantly challenging higher difficulties, even without Byers, there may be "other Les".
Khorkina's "beauty" and Byers's "difficulty", which should be the direction that women's gymnastics should choose more, is indeed a matter of opinion, and it is doomed to not have a definite answer, but it is certain that no matter how Byers "develops" her own difficulty, her difficulty will never be comparable to that of male players.
Byers surprised many male players.
During the 2018 Gymnastics World Championships, some media reported that in the face of Byers' performance, Zou Kai once said quite admirably, "Some of her actions I have a lot of difficulty doing, a female athlete can jump out, I am not only struggling but surprised."
Zou Kai's statement can be regarded as the gymnastics community's highest evaluation of Byers, but just as Byers can still "crush" the entire women's gymnastics world today, Biles is still a special case, and it is obviously unrealistic to expect all female players to surprise Zou Kai by difficulty.
"Khorkina" is becoming more and more rare, "Byers" is equally rare but after all, it is still there, in fact, it is not as good as the revision of the scoring rules of gymnastics competitions, from this point of view, it is more like the INTERNATIONAL Gymnastics firmly chooses a direction for women's gymnastics. From "aesthetic" to "difficult", the INTERNATIONAL SPORTS FEDERATION may have its own grievances – it may be more difficult to dig out khorkina than to cultivate a Byers.
Whether the International Sports Federation is considered in this way, everyone does not know, but the same once "beauty" based on the women's tennis field, known for its strength (also a kind of difficulty) of the power and servitude, not only let the "princess" Singis and other elegant players "early exit", but also let many people think that women's tennis is being destroyed.
The only "comforting" thing is that whether it is Big Wei or Byers, in fact, it will not be a special case that often occurs, so when Serena and Byers quit, who will support this "difficulty" is indeed a huge problem. This problem, of course, does not need the audience headache, and now the most worrying thing is undoubtedly in the 2019 Stuttgart Gymnastics World Championships, how many gold medals and how many medals can Beyers, who won with "difficulty", in the gymnastics field of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, How many opponents can be helpless and how many spectators are surprised.
Serena and Byers are indeed winners and talented geniuses, but it is debatable whether this is the case for a sport.