Newly minted all-around champ Skye Blakely adds two more medals at world gymnastics championships

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Newly minted all-around champion Skye Blakely added to her medal haul at the world gymnastics championships, earning bronze on vault and uneven bars during the event finals on Saturday.

The 21-year-old from Dallas, who soared to gold in the all-around on Friday after recovering from injuries that wrecked her Olympic hopes in 2021 and again in 2024, hardly looked tired in what has quickly become the meet of her life.

Blakely averaged a score of 14.466 on her pair of vaults to share the podium with gold medalist Rebeca Andrade of Brazil and American teammate Claire Pease. Canada’s Lia-Monica Fontaine (14.083) and Ellie Black (13.996) finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Andrade, the Olympic champion on vault and the Olympic silver medalist in the all-around in Paris behind Simone Biles, edged Pease for gold. The 27-year-old Andrade, who is competing as an event specialist at the moment while eyeing a run at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, averaged 14.666, a bit ahead of Pease at 14.233.

Kaylia Nemour of Algeria recovered from a misstep on vault in the all-around finals on Friday that cost her a medal to easily defend her gold on uneven bars. Nemour’s intricate and technically demanding routine — perhaps the hardest currently being done by any gymnast, male or female, on any event — earned her a 15.333, the highest score of the day.

Helen Kervic of Germany captured the silver at 14.833, with Blakely in third at 14.600.

Blakely, who joined Olympic champions Biles and Nastia Liukin as well as Rebecca Bross as the only American women to win at least four medals at a single worlds, will have a chance to add to her medal total on Sunday when she competes in the beam final.

American Fred Richard helped the U.S. men’s team earn a bit of redemption after a shaky seventh-place finish in the team final by edging Jake Jarman of Britain for gold in the floor exercise. The 22-year-old Richard, who has spent the last several years trying to raise the profile of the men’s side of the sport through social media, posted a 14.633 to give the Americans their third individual gold in the last two years.

Jarman, who came in as the defending champion on the event, put together a more difficult routine but was nicked by judges for his execution. His 14.600 wasn’t quite enough to knock Richard off the top of the podium.

Carlos Yulo, the reigning Olympic champion on floor, sat during his second tumbling pass and finished eighth in the eight-man final. Arsenii Dukhno of Russia, who topped qualifying, bounded out of bounds after overcooking a tumbling sequence and wound up sixth.

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The Associated Press