USOC Release
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Top performances at the FIG World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in October earned gymnasts Simone Biles (Spring Texas) and Danell Leyva (Miami, Florida) Athlete of the Month recognition, while the U.S. women’s gymnastics team received Team of the Month honors, the United States Olympic Committee announced today.
Biles (Spring, Texas) made history after winning five medals (gold in team, balance beam, floor, and all-around, and silver on vault) – the most ever by a U.S. athlete at a single world championships. In the all-around final, Biles became the second American in history (Shannon Miller, 1993-94) to win back-to-back all-around world championships titles and the first woman from any country to win back-to-back titles since Russia’s Svetlana Khorkina accomplished the feat in 2001 and 2003.
Leyva (Miami, Florida) clinched the men’s silver medal on parallel bars, marking his first medal at a major international event since winning the all-around bronze medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Leyva also aided the U.S. men to the team bronze medal, contributing standout routines on the pommel horse, parallel bars and high bar.
The U.S. women’s team of Alyssa Baumann (Plano, Texas), Simone Biles (Spring, Texas), Madison Kocian (Dallas, Texas), Ashton Locklear (Huntersville, North Carolina), Kyla Ross (Aliso Viejo, California), Mykayla Skinner (Gilbert, Arizona) and Madison Desch (Blue Springs, Missouri) made U.S. history by winning its second consecutive world team title. The U.S. won by a convincing 6.693 margin over runner-up China and became the first team to win back-to-back women’s world team titles since Romania’s string of five (1994-95, 1997, 1999, 2001).
Paralympic track and field athlete Tatyana McFadden (Clarksville, Maryland) finished runner-up and archer Khatuna Lorig (West Hollywood, California) claimed third in the female vote. On the men’s side, Paralympic track and field athlete Josh George (Champaign, Illinois) and archer Jake Kaminski (Gainesville, Florida) earned second and third place. The compound Para mixed archery team of Carrie Burge (Weatherford, Texas) and Matt Stutzman (Salt Lake City, Utah) finished second, while the figure skating duo of Madison Chock (Novi, Michigan) and Evan Bates (Ann Arbor, Michigan) finished third in the team category.
Each National Governing Body may nominate one female, one male and one team per discipline. A voting panel selects the winners from the pool of nominees with online fan voting via Twitter accounting for 10 percent of the total vote.
FEMALE
1. Simone Biles, Gymnastics
2. Tatyana McFadden, Paralympic Track and Field
3. Khatuna Lorig, Archery
MALE
1. Danell Leyva, Gymnastics
2. Josh George, Paralympic Track and Field
3. Jake Kaminski, Archery
TEAM
1. U.S. Women’s World Championship Team, Gymnastics
2. Compound Para Mixed Team, Archery
3. Madison Chock and Evan Bates, Figure Skating