Simone Biles is the gymnast to beat at the 2024 Olympics, and she showed exactly why that's the case at the USA's podium training Thursday.
Biles and her Team USA counterparts worked on their routines ahead of Sunday's qualifying, but it was the 27-year-old who stole the show at the event. It's all thanks to a vault Biles has worked on for several years: the Yurchenko double pike.
Biles became the first woman to land the Yurchenko double pike at the 2021 U.S. Classic. She was expected to unveil the skill in international competition at the 2021 Olympics, but a case of the twisties prevented her from doing so.
Three years later, Biles is poised to finally land her vault on the Olympic stage.
And if Thursday's training is any indication, she seems ready to stick the landing.
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Simone Biles' vault 2024
Biles' vault at podium training was nearly flawless. The 4-8 gymnast got off to a good running start and flipped twice onto the springboard and vault table before using her strong upper body to push into the air.
Thanks to those moves, Biles got plenty of air and generated two flips from a pike position before safely landing on the ground. She didn't need to move her feet upon landing, sticking to the ground like glue to complete the near-perfect vault.
Simone Biles, cleared for takeoff. ✈️ #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/I32IVlvmiR
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 25, 2024
Biles' vault elicited a yell of amazement from those watching and garnered plenty of praise on social media from gymnastics enthusiasts. She should position herself for a gold-medal run if she can land the maneuver and stick the landing in any of the gymnastics competitions throughout the Olympics — be it in the individual event finals, the all-around competition or the team competition.
Repeating the near-perfect vault won't be easy. She attempted it a second time at podium training but took a step backward and sideways after landing.
Even without sticking the landing, the vault has the highest difficulty score (D score) associated with a Yurchenko maneuver. That should help give Biles a higher-scoring ceiling and a leg up over her competition.
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What is the Yurchenko double pike?
The Yurchenko double pike is a variation of a vault created and executed by Natalia Vladimirovna Yurchenko. She and coach Vladislav Rastorotsky designed a new way to move onto the vaulting table that involved performing a round-off onto the springboard and a back handspring to launch into the air.
From there, the gymnast performs a somersault — also known as a "salto" — while airborne. This is where the variation of the maneuver surfaces, as gymnasts can perform whatever they are comfortable landing, from a single tuck to Biles' double pike.
The double pike involves two somersaults in the air while in a pike position, a straight-legged position during which gymnasts also place their legs straight out in front. Gymnasts hold their legs together during this move and keep their backs straight and keep their eyes looking forward, per Synergy Gymnastics.
Rotating from pike position is slower than doing so from a tuck, per Synergy Gymnastics. That's part of what makes it difficult to land any sort of double pike skill, especially from a Yurchenko entry.
But Biles is likely the greatest gymnast of all time, so it isn't a surprise that she figured out how to perfect the difficult skill.
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How Simone Biles mastered the Yurchenko double pike
Biles first mastered the Yurchenko double pike before the 2021 Olympics. She started working on the vault in the background to help her other competition-ready skills on the apparatus but felt she was ready to bring it to competition.
"Before it was just kind of working on that vault for my block, for my other vaults," Biles told PEOPLE in 2021. "And then we got a little bit more serious. I was like, 'Okay, I think I can compete this.'"
Biles did just that at the 2021 U.S. Classic. That marked the first time any woman had landed the most difficult vault in the sport, and it gave her confidence heading into the Tokyo Games.
While Biles "felt a hundred percent confident in myself that I could do [the vault] safely and land it" before the Olympics, things changed at the vent. She dealt with a case of the twisties, which caused her to lose track of where she was in the air. She bowed out of the team competition after a fall at the end of her vault and didn't compete on the apparatus again in Tokyo.
Biles took a year off from gymnastics following the ordeal at the 2021 Olympics. Upon her return, she eventually began working on the Yurchenko double pike again. By August 2023, her coach Cecile Landi said the gymnast was capable of doing "everything that she was doing before," per NBC Sports. That included the Yurchenko double pike.
Biles was granted a chance to showcase — and land — the vault at the 2023 World Championships. She succeeded. That helped build her confidence in the skill, and she will now be the first woman to try to land it at the Olympics.
But already, the move belongs to Biles, as it has been eponymously named for her — just like several other maneuvers from her career.
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Gymnastics skills named after Simone Biles
Biles has five skills named after her including the Yurchenko double pike, which is known as the Biles II vault. Below is a look at each eponymous move and when it debuted in international competition.
Vault
Biles – Yurchenko half on with double-twisting layout. Debuted at 2018 World Championships.
Biles II — Yurchenko double pike. Debuted at 2023 World Championships.
Beam
Biles – Double-twisting double-tucked backflip. Debuted at 2019 World Championships.
Floor
Biles – Double layout half out. Debuted at 2013 World Championships.
Biles II – Triple-twisting double-tucked backflip. Debuted at 2019 World Championship.
