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Biles dominates all-around during comeback at 2023 Core Hydration Classic

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. – Simone Biles (Spring, Texas/World Champions Centre) made return to gymnastics a night to remember on Saturday, winning the all-around, floor exercise and beam at the 2023 Core Hydration Classic.

The 32-time Olympic and World Championships medalist added a bronze on the uneven bars and put up a monster vault in her first competition since the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games at the 2023 Core Hydration Classic in NOW Arena.

Biles’ night built to a crescendo, with each successive apparatus seeing a boost in score. She took care of any nerves she may have had when she opened on the uneven bars, posting a score of 14.000. Moving to beam, her clean routine put up a 14.800, followed by a 14.900 for a thrilling floor exercise.

Her best performance closed out the night, as she completed a beautiful Yurchenko double pike on vault for a score of 15.400, drawing the biggest roar of the night from a capacity crowd of 7,200 at NOW arena and giving her a winning all-around score of 59.100.

Leanne Wong (Overland Park, Kan./University of Florida Gymnastics) collected all-around silver, scoring a 54.100 overall in the competition, while Joscelyn Roberson (Texarkana, Texas/World Champions Centre) landed just behind her to round out the top three with a 54.050. Zoe Miller (Spring, Texas/World Champions Centre) had the highest score of the evening on bars with a 14.750 and teammate Roberson led the way on vault with a 14.125 (14.650, 13.600).

The night also saw the first elite competition since the Tokyo Games for Olympic all-around gold medalist Suni Lee (St. Paul, Minn./Midwest Gymnastics Center), who placed second to Biles on beam with a score of 14.500 and posted a vault score of 13.500.

Following Saturday’s competition, six additional gymnasts qualified to the 2023 U.S. Gymnastics Championships August 24-27 in San Jose, California, by virtue of their all-around scores. The athletes are listed alphabetically below.

  • Simone Biles — Spring, Texas/World Champions Centre
  • Kayla DiCello — Boyds, Md./Hill’s Gymnastics
  • Amelia Disidore — Overland Park, Kan./Great American Gymnastics Express
  • Kelise Woolford — Columbus, OH/Buckeye Gymnastics
  • Eveylynn Lowe — Blue Springs, Mo./Great American Gymnastics Express
  • Alicia Zhou – San Antonio, TX/Love Gymnastics

Lee was among the athletes who also qualified for San Jose with her two-score total. A full list of qualifiers will be posted on usagym.org on Monday, August 7.

The 2023 Core Hydration Classic concludes Sunday, August 6 with junior and senior men’s competition. Session 1 including junior and senior athletes is set for 10:45 a.m. CT/11:45 a.m. ET, while Session 2 of only senior men begins at 4:45 p.m. CT/5:45 p.m. ET.

NBC will broadcast highlights of Saturday’s competition on Sunday from 3:30-5 p.m. CT/4:30-6 p.m. ET.