By Emily Giambalvo
Belgium: Simone Biles soared off the vault and through the air, reaching heights unmatched by all the other women here. She grabbed her straight legs, and her light-blue leotard became a blur. As she rotated twice, her technique was excellent as usual, and her feet found the mat with a bounding step backward. Instantly, the crowd roared, understanding the significance of the moment.
Biles had made history – again – this time for landing a Yurchenko double pike, the most difficult vault in women’s gymnastics. At these world championships, she became the first woman to successfully perform the element in a major international competition, so now it will forever bear her name in the sport’s rule book.
“People, I hope, realise that maybe that’s one of the last times you’re going to see a vault like that in your life from a women’s gymnast,” Biles’ coach, Laurent Landi, said. “I think it’s time to appreciate that.”
The Yurchenko double pike, a vault with an extra flip that makes it so difficult and dangerous, will be known as the Biles II. It can’t simply be the Biles because she has already pioneered an element on this apparatus, another one of the now five skills named for the American superstar. Those innovations have been key to Biles’ legacy. She first became a world all-around champion here in Antwerp in 2013, with one skill named for her during that competition, and she has spent the last decade on a run of dominance, breaking medal records and redefining what’s perceived as possible in women’s gymnastics.
During the qualifying round at the Sportpaleis, Biles landed this vault with plenty of power. She has mastered the skill, never faltering in an official competition. But Biles and her coaches have not yet decided if she’ll perform the Yurchenko double pike on the remaining days of competition, Landi said. Because the vault’s difficulty, they determine her comfort level with the skill on a daily basis.
Not long ago, this vault, previously only performed by men, wasn’t perceived as a future evolution on the women’s side. And then in early 2020, Biles shared a training video that sparked buzz in the gymnastics community. She revealed a double-flipping vault, performed into a foam pit but with plenty of height, and suddenly, it seemed realistic. Biles unveiled the skill the following year, and even after her two-year break from competition, the vault remained part of her repertoire.
Simone Biles made history with her vault performance in Belgium.Credit: Getty Images
“I know how hard she works in the gym, and I know how consistent they are in the gym, so I was just so excited for her to land it,” said Joscelyn Roberson, a 17-year-old who trains alongside Biles and performed well in her world championships debut.
After Biles capped a masterful performance from the US team with the groundbreaking performance on vault, she cycled through each of the fellow American gymnasts and coaches to celebrate with hugs.
The difficulty of this vault gives Biles a significant edge over her peers, similar to how her complex routines on other apparatuses also boost her all-around total. As the Americans opened competition at the world championships, Biles led the squad with a huge 58.865 all-around total – well higher than the score that led to Rebeca Andrade’s gold last year (56.899).
Even without Biles at the world championships a year ago, the Americans had an edge of 2.668 points in the qualifying round and a 3.201-point cushion in the final. Three of the gymnasts from the 2022 team returned this year, and because of Biles’ difficult routines and superb execution, the winning margin could be even larger, reminiscent of past squads headlined by Biles.
The only time a Biles-led team didn’t capture the gold medal was when a mental block, known in gymnastics as “the twisties,” derailed Biles’ run through the Tokyo Olympics. She withdrew from the team final after feeling lost in the air during her vault – a twisting version, not the double pike, and in her absence, the Americans slipped to second. (Before winning the gold, Russia, a perennial gymnastics power banned from this event because of its invasion of Ukraine, had also outscored the United States in the Olympic qualifying round, when Biles performed on each apparatus.)
Biles’s trouble in Tokyo is why this season, and particularly this week’s return to a major international competition, sparked so much interest, with fans wondering if she could return to full form. Her performances this summer – with her usual array of difficult skills, including twisting elements – proved that she had. In August, Biles earned the best all-around score in the world this year. But at those national-level competitions, Biles hadn’t yet faced the challenge of a week-long global event that is packed with pressure.
On Biles’ first day of competition in Antwerp, she tallied an all-around score not far off from her best-mark this season (59.300), and judging at international competitions is generally stricter than at national-level meets. Biles also will almost certainly advance to every individual final.
“She just needs to control her emotion when she competes,” Landi said. “I think it was her old self. That’s pretty much it. She had a great day. I know she can even do better, but we’ll take that.”
The Washington Post
