As Skye Blakely competed in the biggest individual gymnastics event of her life, she kept telling herself, “Do it for the girl in 2021, and the girl in 2024.”
The girl in 2026 is the world’s top gymnast, winning the all-around at the World Gymnastics Championships — the biggest title in the sport outside of the Olympics.
Blakely, a 21-year-old University of Florida junior, capped a comeback from injuries that knocked her out of the Olympic Trials in 2021 (torn elbow ligament warming up for her first event of trials) and in 2024 (ruptured Achilles two days before trials).
Blakely thought about those heartbreaks as she hit her four routines on Friday in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
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“When I couldn’t do everything, just fight for her,” she told herself.
Blakely totaled 55.733 points, prevailing by .534 over Liudmila Roshchina from Russia. Ke Qinqin of China earned bronze.
“As soon as I hit my ending pose in my floor routine, just so grateful, just knowing how much I have truly overcome,” Blakely told NBC Sports. “There was many days where I wanted to give up and just thought I couldn’t do it anymore.”
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 she ruptured her right Achilles while training for the Olympic Trials on floor, requiring season-ending surgery.
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 added Friday, “In that moment (at 2024 trials), it was hard to see that there was a way to even be here.”
She did return, making it to her third consecutive World Championships in 2025. But she didn’t get back to the all-around until this past winter, when she competed on floor and vault for the first time since the Achilles tear.
“I did have some question if I would be strong enough to even make the all-around final, maybe even just make worlds,” she said.
In August, she was tied for the lead after the first day at the Xfinity U.S. Championships, 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 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 posted the second-best score of the 24-gymnast field on vault and the third-best on bars and beam.
That gave her a 1.001-point cushion going into her last event, floor, the same apparatus where she had sustained the injury at 2024 trials. She delivered the 16th-best score there, nearly matching her qualifying score, which was enough to safely clinch the title.
Skye Blakely is the 2026 World All-Around CHAMPION! 🇺🇸
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) October 23, 2026
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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 ninth American woman to win the world all-around title overall after Kim Zmeskal (1991), Shannon Miller (1993, 1994), Chellsie Memmel (2005), Shawn Johnson (2007), Bridget Sloan (2009), Jordyn Wieber (2011), Biles (six times) and Morgan Hurd (2017).
Of those, Blakely is the first non-teen to win her first title and the first to do so in the middle of an NCAA career.
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.
