BOSTON -- Olympic champion Simone Biles easily won her fifth U.S. women's gymnastics title Sunday night, winning all four events as well as the all-around in a dominant performance that showcased the ever-widening chasm between Biles and the rest of her sport.
Biles said she had nothing to prove at the championships and had only one person to please: Herself.
"I can quit if I wanted to," Biles said after the first night of competition.
But Biles, 21, knew that she could still push herself and, perhaps more important, that she could enjoy the ride. On Sunday night, she put an exclamation point on her status of world's best female gymnast.
Biles posted a two-day total of 119.850, more than six points ahead of reigning world champion Morgan Hurd and a full seven points clear of Riley McCusker. Biles' margin of victory was greater than the gap between Hurd and 11th-place finisher Jordan Chiles.
Biles is the second woman to win nationals five times, joining Clara Schroth Lomady, who won six between 1945 and 1952. Biles also became the first woman since three-time Olympian Dominique Dawes in 1994 to wind up first on floor exercise, balance beam, vault and uneven bars.
"It was shocking then (in '94) and it's shocking now, too," said high performance coordinator Tom Forster.
Biles was also the oldest women's all-around champion since 1971.
The only real challenge Biles faced on any event came from McCusker. A year removed from a hamstring injury that forced her to take herself out of consideration for the world championship team, McCusker put on a brilliant performance on uneven bars. She hugged coach Maggie Haney after sticking her dismount, but McCusker's total of 29.300 was a tenth less than the 29.400 Biles posted on an event that used to be a weakness, or at least as close to a weakness as Biles gets.
"She pushes us," McCusker said. "I'm honestly just in awe of her."
Otherwise, it was Biles in a runaway.
A year ago, Biles was wrapping up a post-Olympics 2016 whirlwind after bringing home four gold medals, five overall and entered the "first-name" pantheon in gymnastics, a club that includes Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.
But Biles is making a compelling case that she may be entering a class all her own. She didn't get serious about a return until the fall, when she went back into training with new coaches in Laurent and Cecile Landi and not just returning to the form that made her one of the stars in Rio de Janeiro.
All-around 2008 gold medalist Nastia Liukin, who attended the championships Sunday, took a path similar to that of Biles -- Liukin also returned to elite gymnastics after a break. Her comeback ended after a fall on the uneven bars at the 2012 Olympic trials.
"Physically, she's better than she was in Rio," Liukin said of Biles. "I have no doubt that if she continues doing what she's doing, there's not a chance in the world that anybody is going to be able to beat her. That's cool-slash-scary to think. I never felt that way."
Two meets into her comeback, Biles appears well on her way. Her all-around score of 60.1 during the opening round Friday was the highest since she and Aly Raisman both topped the 60-point barrier during the all-around finals in Brazil. And Biles did it despite stepping out of bounds twice during her powerful tumbling runs.
Biles worried a bit about her endurance after cramming two meets in a span of three weeks. She wasn't quite as sharp Sunday as she was Friday -- scoring a bit lower on bars and beam -- but it hardly mattered. She was so far ahead coming into the finals she needed to do little more than stay upright to finish the night atop the podium.
"I kind of thought I'd be a nervous wreck and maybe fall apart," Biles said. "Going into these events, I kept telling my family, 'I don't know if I'm going to be able to calm myself down the way I did before and handle the nerves.' But so far, so good."
Biles will get a chance to add to her 14 world championship medals when she leads Team USA to Qatar in October. Hurd, McCusker and vault specialist Jordan Chiles figure to be on the plane, too. Whoever earns the fifth spot will join a team that will be heavily favored to continue its international supremacy.
The Americans have won every major international team competition since the 2011 world championships, a run that figures to continue indefinitely with Biles doing things no gymnast has ever done.
"You can't be that lucky," Forster said. "So that is just hard work and training and dedication and determination. It's pretty awesome to witness."
Sports on 08/20/2018