For the majority of top gymnasts, starting gently in competition and easing back to full difficulty after a year off of training and only a short period of time exercising at full intensity again may be advised. Simone Biles, however, acts ineffectively.

The 26-year-old celebrated her comeback at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp after a two-year sabbatical by landing her Yurchenko double pike vault in an international competition for the first time. The vault, which is the most challenging in women’s gymnastics, will be known as the Biles II.

Biles won the women’s all-around competition after the first day of the two-day qualifying round with a score of 58.865, which is the highest international all-around mark of the current Olympic cycle and is unlikely to be surpassed. On Friday, she will try to win a sixth world all-around title, which would break the previous record.

While all is going on, Great Britain is solidifying its position as one of the best gymnastics teams. The women’s team, who won the silver medal last year, moved into second place after day one with a good score of 166.130 after the men qualified in third place behind Japan and the USA. They were successful because of Jessica Gadirova, who is currently in third place in the women’s all-around, who put on an outstanding performance.

The Belgian crowd’s roars made it plain that they were in awe of Biles as soon as she entered the Sportpaleis. Biles started her evening on the uneven bars with her USA teammates, coolly executing a fantastic performance on her least favourite item and sticking her dismount as she scored 14.400. Up until the very end, she kept that energy.

Biles performed a flawless balancing beam routine and earned a score of 14.566, which is almost a full point better than the score (13.6) she received to win the world championship on balance beam the previous year. She accomplished her challenging routine with ease during the floor exercise, where she has won the title five times, increasing her lead with a score of 14.633.

Despite the fact that Biles debuted the Yurchenko double pike in 2021, she had never performed it at an international competition, which is necessary for a talent to bear a gymnast’s name. Biles has chosen to consistently do the Yurchenko double pike as her preferred vault ever since she returned this year, which is remarkable.

Biles did the last spin on Sunday with her trademark amplitude, form, and ease. She flew high towards the rafters and overpowered the vault as she landed with a big stride back. Her coach, Laurent Landi, stood on the vault mat as a calming presence while she attempted such a challenging skill, hence there was a neutral reduction of 0.5 from the vault score.

Biles finished 1.933 points ahead of her fellow countrywoman Shilese Jones, who won the all-around silver medal last year and had a fantastic day herself, despite giving up half a point to each of her competitors. At the conclusion of the first day, Biles is in the lead for the floor exercise, vault, balancing beam, and all-around, while Jones is in the lead for the uneven bars.

It was the perfect start to what might have been her most illustrious world title. Biles now has 32 world and Olympic medals, ten years after making her major championship debut in this very stadium. She needs two more to surpass all other men and female gymnasts in terms of awards.

Gymnasts other than Biles also dazzled with extraordinarily challenging vaults. Gadirova showed additional growth a year after being the first British woman to win a women’s all-around medal at a world competition. Now she performs the Cheng vault, another one of the sport’s most difficult vaults. She joins Jones and Rebeca Andrade, the current global all-around champion from Brazil, as the standout all-around gymnasts after Biles and considerably increases her score potential. She landed it well despite making a tiny out-of-bounds hop on the Cheng vault.

Gadirova, who was already the floor exercise world champion the previous year, also made her double twisting double straight debut as the new opening tumbling pass in her floor routine. With a score of 14.4, she finished second to Biles by barely two tenths. Gadirova achieved a personal best all-around score of 56.766, 1.5 points higher than the mark she used to win the bronze medal the previous year.

Ondine Achampong, who pulled off a little upset by outscoring Alice Kinsella by three hundredths of a point, will probably join Gadirova in the all-around final. Each nation sends only two gymnasts to the final. Georgia-Mae Fenton and Ruby Evans, the first Welsh gymnast to be nominated to a Great Britain squad in 17 years, completed a fantastic performance by the GB team.