Simone Biles lands historic Yurchenko double pike in return to competition

Tom Gatto

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Simone Biles lands historic Yurchenko double pike in return to competition image

Simone Biles reminded the world Saturday that she is on her own level above other Olympic gymnasts.

The U.S. superstar became the first woman to land in competition a vault that included a Yurchenko double pike. She pulled off the feat at the GK U.S. Classic in Indianapolis.

MORE: Video shows Biles landing Yurchenko double pike in practice

As to what the Yurchenko double pike entails, The Associated Press described it this way in its account of the vault:

Biles sprinted down the runway, did a roundoff onto the springboard followed by a back handspring onto the vault, finishing with two backflips with her legs ramrod straight and her hands seemingly magnetized to her hamstrings.

What made Biles' move even more daring and impressive was that she was competing for the first time in more than 18 months (per the AP) after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 Summer Olympics. She eased to victory in the overall Saturday.

The 24-year-old Biles will now continue gearing up for this summer's Tokyo Games, where she is favored to add to the four gold medals and five total medals (one bronze) she won in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.