Simone Biles wins gymnastic gold, has run-in with bee on medal stand

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Reigning all-around gymnastics world champion, Simone Biles, won her second title at the World Gymnastics Championship on October 10.

The 17-year-old’s consecutive wins at the annual event mark the first time in 11 years that a woman has snagged consecutive all-around titles. Only six women have accomplished the feat in the event’s more than hundred year history.

The American gymnast wound up 0.466 points ahead of the silver medalist, Romania’s Larisa Andrea Iordache; another American, Kyla Ross, finished third. The event, held in Guangxi Gymnasium in Nanning, China, saw more than 4,000 spectators turn out for the final.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaKCa6m2dT8

After holding off Iordache on the four-apparatus final to retain her title, Giles faced some additional competition on the medals stand from an unexpected attendee. With her gold medal firmly placed around her neck, a bee hiding in her bouquet of flowers suddenly flew out, causing her to shriek, duck and throw the bouquet away in an attempt to thwart the buzzing menace.

When asked about the bee, Biles said, “There was a bee on my flowers, and then Larisa told me so I tried to get the bee off and then the bee chased me, and then it got on Kyla,” with the gymnast adding that she told her fellow American team member, “I’m so sorry, Kyla. I just don’t do bugs!”

Neither Giles nor the other medalists were stung, however, and the young gymnast was in good spirits about the unexpected surprise, tweeting after the event, “more pics from bee attack, literally cant stop laughing.”

A video of the bee crashing the medals ceremony has been uploaded on YouTube.

On becoming only the sixth woman—and second American, after Shannon Miller in 1993-1994—in history to secure back-to-back victories in the artistic gymnastics all-around, Giles said, “It actually blows my mind. If I think about it right now, I’m just like, `Whaaaat?’ It’s just like, I don’t know. It’s just really weird, but it’s really cool,” while also saying that, “I am quite pleased with what I did today, but that does not mean I can not do even better.”