CBC Lite Sections Sports U.S. gymnast Skye Blakely's long road to top ends with artistic world championship gold RecapThe Associated Press | Posted: October 23, 2026 11:18 PM | Last Updated: October 23 4-time Canadian Olympian Ellie Black 16th in the Netherlands, teammate Lia Redick 24th Image | American gymnast Skye Blakely in the Netherlands Caption: After tearing her right Achilles at the 2024 Olympic trials, Skye Blakely of the U.S. put together four polished and confident routines on Friday that ended with happy tears and an all-around gold medal around her neck even she didn't see coming at the artistic gymnastics world championships. (Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images) (BUTTON) Load image Open image in new tab Skye Blakely kept going. Through heartbreak. Through injury. Through doubt. Through all of it. The American gymnast never gave up on herself, not after her dreams of Olympic glory ended one step short of a lifelong goal not once, but twice. Not after "shutting down" at times mentally as she wondered if it was all worth it. The 21-year-old from Dallas kept faith in herself and in the process. She took two years off from competing in the all-around at the elite level after tearing her right Achilles at the 2024 Olympic trials, opting to patiently and painstakingly rebuild her body and her routines until she felt they were ready, and not a moment before. That moment arrived on Friday at the 2026 world gymnastics championships, when Blakely put together four polished and confident routines that ended with happy tears and an all-around gold medal around her neck even she didn't see coming. “Throughout the meet, I was telling myself, ‘Do it for the girl in 2021 and the girl in 2024 who couldn't do everything, just fight for her,"' Blakely said after posting a total of 55.733 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, more than a half-point ahead of silver medalist Liudmila Roschina of Russia and bronze medalist Ke Qinqin of China. "That's what I kept telling myself: ‘I am capable, I am ready’ and I made every version of myself extremely proud." * Japan's Daiki Hashimoto wins fourth straight men's all-around gold And a bit surprised. Blakely was a prodigy in 2021 when she injured her elbow at Olympic trials. She was a semi-longshot then to make the team. She wasn't in 2024. Blakely was in excellent position to head to Paris before shredding her Achilles during training the day before the start of the competition. Rather than rush back, Blakely took her time, competing usually as an event specialist at the University of Florida. She did the all-around for the first time in two years at the U.S. championships in August but ran out of gas on the final day of the meet. Not this time. WATCH | Full replay coverage of the women's all-around final from Rotterdam: Media Video | CBC Sports : Caption: Watch the women's all-around final at the 54th annual Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Open full embed in new tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. 9th U.S. woman to win all-around event Two days after the U.S. saw its long run of gold medals in the team finals at worlds end with a second-place finish to resurgent China, Blakely became the ninth American woman to win her sport's biggest annual title. "It truly means the world to me, knowing how much I have overcome, all of the hardship that I faced and the days that I wanted to give up or didn't think it was possible," Blakely said. "To see it really come to be tonight, is just, it makes me so proud of myself and makes me reflect on little me who would dream of this." * Canadian women earn spot at 2027 artistic gymnastics worlds in China * Black helps Canadian women to Commonwealth Games silver Ellie Black of Halifax was 16th in the field of 24, scoring 52.532. Her top discipline was uneven bars in which she tallied 13.833. “It was a bit of a tough start on [the balance] beam with the fall,” she told CBC/Radio-Canada. “But I was proud that I didn’t derail the competition. “I still [went] out there [and hit] a good floor routine [12.900], a good vault [13.433], a great bar routine to finish. I think this is my ninth all-around final at a world championships, which is phenomenal. I had a great showing and was proud of the fight.” The 31-year-old, who is competing at her 10th worlds, is grateful for the crowd support overseas. 'I try to support all the athletes' “To compete and have people cheer for me no matter what, it’s special, and hopeful shows the impact that hopefully I’ve had on gymnastics around the world,” the four-time Olympian said. “I do try to support all the athletes. “I did see a couple of Canadian flags. My dad was in the crowd [and] have a couple of friends from back home also cheering [me] on. It was special to see them.” Lia Redick of Oakville, Ont., was 24th (48.231). Her highest score came on vault, at 13.666. * World Gymnastics regrets 'confusion' after 3 top Russians refused visas for worlds * More gymnastics coverage Taking the floor two nights after the U.S.'s long gold-medal run in the team finals ended for a variety of reasons — from China's brilliance on beam to some uncharacteristic miscues on the same event by the Americans, Blakely included — she responded with the best meet of her life. So far, anyway. When Blakely headed to beam on Friday for the third rotation, she was atop the leaderboard after an excellent start on vault followed by a bar routine that's as good as anything done by an American now. Still, beam is different, a 75-second test of nerves. There were no missed connections this time, as there were in the team final. There were rarely any wobbles either. Blakely's score of 14.200 kept her in front and turned her floor exercise into a victory lap. The tears after she saluted the judges following a routine set to music personally curated by Blakely, including the instrumental from Show Me What You Got by rap icon Jay-Z – were real. So were the ones when her spot atop the sport became official about 15 minutes later. Blakely then draped the American flag over her back while posing for the cameras, drinking in a moment a long time coming in many ways. More Stories Like This The related links below are generated automatically based on the story you’ve just read. Loading... CBC Lite is a low-bandwidth website. To see what's new, check out our release notes. For high quality images, media, comments, and other additional features visit the full version of this story. Theme preference[Auto_] Contrast preference[Auto___] We and select advertising partners use trackers to collect some of your data in order to enhance your experience and to deliver personalized content and advertising. 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