American Skye Blakely won the women's all-around title at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam on October 23. USA Gymnastics confirmed her total of 55.733, securing her first individual world medal. The 21-year-old finished ahead of Russia's Liudmila Roshchina and China's Ke Qinqin, according to BBC and AFP reports.
Roshchina earned silver with 55.199 and Ke took bronze with 55.032. Algeria's Kaylia Nemour, the leading qualifier, finished fourth, just 0.034 behind Ke. AFP reported that Nemour mistimed her approach to the vault springboard and sacrificed difficulty, leaving her to chase the leaders across the remaining apparatus.
USA Gymnastics recorded Blakely's scores as 14.200 on vault, 14.400 on uneven bars and 14.200 on balance beam. She completed her competition with 12.933 on floor exercise. Having qualified second for the final, she delivered the four-event total that put her 0.534 ahead of Roshchina.
The victory followed a lengthy recovery from the right Achilles injury that ended Blakely's hopes of reaching the 2024 Paris Olympics. Florida said she returned to competition on uneven bars in January 2025 and resumed elite all-around competition in August 2026. Her Rotterdam gold marked a new stage in that return.
According to Florida, Blakely became the first gymnast to compete in NCAA gymnastics and win world all-around gold in the same calendar year. Her American teammate Claire Pease finished seventh with 54.232, USA Gymnastics said. Pease also recorded the final's highest floor score, 13.733.
Florida said Blakely qualified for vault, uneven bars and balance beam finals as well as the all-around. The championship schedule places apparatus finals across October 24 and 25, with women's beam on Sunday. Those separate medal contests follow an all-around victory that has already secured her place among the Rotterdam champions.
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