BOSTON — Simone Biles hardly looks like someone who took two years off.

The reigning Olympic gymnastics champion put on a show Friday night at the U.S. Championships, stringing together one electric performance after the other to give herself a commanding lead over world champion Morgan Hurd.

Biles posted a score of 60.100, well clear of Hurd, the top all-around scorer in the world this year.

Biles returned to competition at the U.S. Classic two weeks ago and won easily even with a handful of small errors she promised she could clean up in time for nationals. Though she wasn’t quite perfect – going out of bounds twice during her floor routine – she left little doubt she remains in a class by herself. And it’s not close.

Even with the miscues – both the result of Biles briefly being unable to control her considerable power – the 21-year-old’s score of 14.650 was still best in an event where she won one of her four gold medals at the 2016 Olympics. Biles also put up the top scores on balance beam (15.2), vault (15.6) and uneven bars (14.850).

And she did it while increasing the difficulty of her program. Biles did just one vault at the U.S. Classic but added another for nationals. She drilled it with ease, seemingly falling out of the sky while finishing her 21/2 twists, turning the competition very much into what it was during the run-up to the 2016 Olympics, when there was the Biles Division and there was everyone else.

Hurd did her best to keep Biles at least within eyesight. The 17-year-old missed out on a chance to make a real run at Biles two weeks ago when she fell off the beam. There were no major mistakes this time around. She finished in the top five on all four events with a total score of 57.000, looking like someone who has taken a significant step forward over the last 10 months.

Riley McCusker (56.050) was in third place overall, followed by Grace McCallum (55.900) and Trinity Thomas (55.500).

Defending national champion Ragan Smith, battling foot injuries, struggled. The 2016 Olympic alternate is tied for ninth after putting up a score of 53.750, well below her all-around score at the 2017 championships when she easily rolled to victory.


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