Simone Biles won a record 21st medal at the world gymnastics championships on Tuesday as the United States retained their women’s team all-around title.

Why Simone Biles is even better than her scores tell Read more

Biles’ 15th career gold medal brings her a total of 21 medals, breaking a tie with the Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina for the most medals by a woman at the world championships. She’s now two short of Vitaly Scherbo’s all-time record among men or women of 23.

“Every year it feels better and better just because we’re adding to the legacy,” Biles said. “I feel like I never think of records. I just go out there and do what I came to do, which is compete for the country.”

#TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) The floor routine of the most decorated women in world gymnastics championships history: @Simone_Biles 🥇#Stuttgart2019 pic.twitter.com/DSNIzIjG0v

The US team scored 172.330 points to beat second-placed Russia by 5.801 points and win their seventh consecutive team title at an Olympics or world championships. According to NBC, it’s the longest global title streak for a women’s gymnastics program since the Soviet Union in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Biles, the prohibitive favorite in Thursday’s individual all-around final, qualified for all four event finals. Additionally, she posted the best individual scores on the vault, balance beam and floor. “I think if I do the routine that I did tonight I’ll be more than happy” on Thursday, she said.

A fall for Sunisa Lee on the balance beam in her world championship debut and a fumbled routine from Grace McCallum on the uneven bars left the US with room for improvement, though both were strong on other apparatus. “It’s just so surreal to come out here and end up on top with the strength of the team that we have, even after having a couple falls out there,” Biles said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Simone Biles is congratulated by her USA teammates after her floor routine. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Russia became the first team to get within six points of the US since China at the 2015 world championships, something which pleased Russian gymnast Angelina Melnikova. “We’re happy that we got second because we can’t battle the Americans just yet, but today the gap was significantly lower than at the last few world championships,” Melnikova said.

Biles said other teams were “most definitely” closing in on the United States. “All of the teams have improved their difficulty over the last quad, and I think that’s really exciting to see the strength that they have.”

Italy took bronze to capture their first women’s team medal at a world championships in 69 years. China, failing to reach the podium for the first time since 2003, were fourth after a tough day for Liu Tingting, who fell twice on the uneven bars and again on the balance beam.

A fall on the beam mount by Italy’s last gymnast, Elisa Iorio, made for a tense finish but she recovered to score enough to stay ahead of China by 0.536 points. It was a big recovery for Italy, who had qualified in last place for the final. “The goal for today was just to do better than qualification and how it goes, it goes,” Italian gymnast Giorgia Villa said.

Great Britain finished sixth in the final, and have qualified for next year’s Olympics.