ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — Skye Blakely is the 2026 world all-around champion in women’s artistic gymnastics.
The 21-year-old University of Florida junior scored 55.733 points Friday at the 2026 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. She beat Liudmila Roshchina of Russia by 0.534, and China’s Ke Qinqin took bronze, NBC Sports reported.
The title is the biggest individual prize in gymnastics outside the Olympics. For Blakely, it closes a chapter that began with heartbreak two years ago.
Two injuries, two missed Olympic trials
In 2024, Blakely finished second to Simone Biles at the U.S. Championships. That put her in prime position to make the Paris Olympic team.
Then, during podium training at the Olympic trials in Minneapolis, she ruptured her right Achilles tendon on floor exercise. It happened two days before competition began, and she withdrew. The injury ended her season and required surgery.
It was not the first time. Three years earlier, she tore an elbow ligament warming up for the Tokyo Olympic trials.
A day after the Achilles injury, Blakely wrote on Instagram that she was devastated but would keep her chin high. She ended the post with a promise: “I’ll be back.”
The road back to the all-around
She kept that promise in stages. Blakely made her third straight world team in 2025, but she did not return to all-around competition until this year.
Even then, the path was not smooth. She was tied for the lead after the first day of the U.S. Championships in August, then slid to seventh overall. She still earned a spot on the five-woman world team.
In Rotterdam, at her fourth consecutive worlds and her first in the all-around, she qualified second with 55.465 points. Only Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour scored higher.
“I already cried, but it just means the world to me,” Blakely said after qualifying, citing two major surgeries and years of setbacks.
How Skye Blakely earned the gold
Skye Blakely opened Friday’s final with a double-twisting Yurchenko vault for 14.200. She stuck her uneven bars dismount for 14.400, then held steady through a tense balance beam routine for another 14.200.
That put her in first after three rotations with 42.800 points. She carried a 1.001-point lead into her final event, floor exercise, and the lead held.
Nemour, the top qualifier, fell back early. She overstepped her run on vault, missed the springboard and lost 1.4 points of difficulty.
Steadying Team USA
The win came two days after a rare setback for the U.S. women. China edged the Americans by 0.233 points in Wednesday’s team final, ending a run of seven straight world team titles dating to 2011.
Blakely was the only member of that U.S. lineup who had competed in a world team final before.
Her gold keeps another streak alive. A U.S. woman has now reached the all-around podium at every Olympics and world championships since 2003, 24 straight global championships.
She joins a short list of American women to win the world all-around title in that span: Chellsie Memmel, Shawn Johnson, Bridget Sloan, Jordyn Wieber, Simone Biles and Morgan Hurd.
Teammate Claire Pease, the other American in the final, fell off beam on her second event Friday. Two days earlier, she had totaled 56.099 across all four events in the team final.
The field did not include any of the 2024 Olympic all-around medalists. Biles and Suni Lee are not competing this season, and Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade entered only vault and beam.
Reigning world all-around champion Angelina Melnikova was also absent. She was one of three Russian gymnasts the Netherlands denied visas, along with Olympic champion Viktoria Listunova.
The Russian Gymnastics Federation said the refusals cited concerns that the athletes threatened Schengen states’ international relations, the Kyiv Independent reported. Both gymnasts have publicly backed Russia’s war in Ukraine, and World Gymnastics only lifted its sanctions on Russian athletes in May.
What’s next for Skye Blakely and Team USA
Blakely is not done in Rotterdam. She qualified for three more individual finals: vault and uneven bars Saturday and balance beam Sunday, according to NBC Sports. Finals stream on Peacock in the U.S.
