Artistic Gymnastics World Championships

For NPR News, I'm Steve Kastenbaum in New York.

American gymnast Sky Blakely has won the all-around gold medal that happened earlier today at the World Gymnastics Championships underway in the Netherlands.

The 21-year-old from Dallas put together four outstanding performances, including a set on uneven bars.

Blakely missed both the 2020 and the 2024 Olympics because of injuries.

Yulo aims for floor exercise gold at 2026 World Championships.

Two-time Olympic champion Carlos Yulo will have a chance to win the gold medal in floor exercise at the 2026 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam on Saturday at 8 p.m., Manila time.

The 26-year-old Filipino gymnast is fresh from a historic double gold medal performance at the 20th Asian Games in Japan, where he won the floor exercise and vault titles.

Yulo last claimed a World Championships gold on floor exercise in 2019 in Stuttgart, becoming the first Southeast Asian athlete to win the event.

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Number six, Team USA gymnast Sky Blakely had the top all-around score of the US women in the qualifying round of the World Gymnastics Championships.

It was her first all-around appearance ever at the World Gymnastics Championships, which is why it's so impressive that she was able to be the top of the US women.

It was also a big moment in her return to an international competition this year in general.

She was out for more than two years after tearing her Achilles before the 2024 Olympic trials, so she missed the Paris Olympics.

And now I'd say she's making a pretty strong case for herself to not miss another Olympics.

By the way, the World Gymnastics Championships Women's All-Round Final is today, Friday, at 1.30 Eastern.

We'll link to the details in the show notes for how to watch.

Sports, Yulo aims for floor exercise gold at 2026 World Championships.

Two-time Olympic champion Carlos Yulo will have a chance to win the gold medal in floor exercise at the 2026 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam on Saturday at 8 p.m., Manila time.

The 26-year-old Filipino gymnast is fresh from a historic double gold medal performance at the 20th Asian Games in Japan, where he won the floor exercise and vault titles.

Yulo last claimed a World Championships gold on floor exercise in 2019 in Stuttgart, becoming the first Southeast Asian athlete to win the event.

If you have listened to the Neutral Deductions podcast, you would have heard his name and you would have heard us say, you need to know who this athlete is.

So he won three medals of the Junior World Championships.

He is the current Asian champion on ring and he won silver in the Asian Games All-Around Final.

And now he is the silver medalist at the World Championships as well.

Joe Fraser rounded out the podium for bronze, and I would say this was definitely unexpected.

If there was a British I thought was going to be on the podium, I thought it was going to be Jake Jarman.

Ray's career has had this well-publicized independent resurgence, and seeing that capped by one of British music's most prestigious honors drew tens of thousands of people straight to her story.

Right beside that was the 2026 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, pulling in massive readership of its own.

It made for a day where artistic and athletic excellence completely overshadowed geopolitical communiques.

And that Mercury Prize moment wasn't just a reading phenomenon.

Game four is scheduled for Saturday in Atlanta.

Gymnastics China won the women's team final at the World Gymnastics Championships in the Netherlands yesterday, finishing just 0.233 points ahead of the US team and handing the Americans their first loss in the event since 2010.

Entertainment Awards.

The American Film Institute announced yesterday that actor and producer Tom Cruise will receive the AFI Life Achievement Award at a gala tribute in Los Angeles in April.