The American women’s gymnastics team may have won gold for the team all-around, but the Team USA stars rallied around Simone Biles to celebrate her fifth Olympic gold medal.
Last year, Simone Biles made history as she became the first woman to perform the Yurchenko double pike at a world competition -- a skill few men even attempt, let alone land.
On Thursday, she nailed it again for an incredible start to the women's gymnastics individual all-around final, scoring her a massive 15.766 - the highest score in the vault competition for the event. (See it below)
So what exactly is it and why is it so difficult?
What is a Yurchenko double pike, also known as the Biles II?
Yurchenko vaults are a category of vaults that involve leading into a move with a round-off. They're named after gymnast Natalia Vladimirovna Yurchenko.
Because Biles became the first woman to complete the double pike move in a major international competition, it has since been named after her: the Biles II.
It may be the most dazzling, most daring of the five moves currently named after her.
The skill has a difficulty value of 6.4- making it the hardest vault in the women’s competition.
The vault asks Biles to do a round-off back handspring onto the table, then two backward flips in pike position with her hands essentially clasped to her knees.
She does it with so much power, she can sometimes overcook it. At the U.S. Olympic trials last month, it drew a standing ovation.
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She completed it during the all-around qualifications, but not during the team all-around final, where she won gold.
Before Biles, the Yurchenko double pike had never been completed by a woman in competition, and few men have even tried. She began tinkering with it in 2021, but it's in the last year that it has morphed into perhaps the most show-stopping thing done in the sport.
“No, it's not normal,” longtime coach Laurent Landi said after she drilled it at the 2023 U.S. Championships. “She's not normal.”
"The only way I could describe this vault compared to what we typically see is like seeing someone put on a mask and being like, ‘I’m a vigilante,’ versus just Ironman," NBC Sports analyst and former Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez, a two-time medalist, previously told TODAY. "I cannot express this enough, this is really hard. It’s extremely difficult."
WATCH Simone do it
Who else does a yurchenko double pike?
Among the gymnasts who can achieve such a massive feat is suburban Olympian Paul Juda, who is also in Paris for the men's team currently.
Juda considers the move the most difficult skill he can do as a gymnast.
"What's really difficult about it is that there aren't too many men's athletes that do it," Juda told NBC Chicago Friday. "But then when you put it into perspective, there's never been a female that's done it until Simone, right? And so putting Simone already into her own kind of G.O.A.T category is one thing. But yeah, the vaults extremely difficult."
Juda admits the skill is harrowing, however.
"I've talked to Simone before. We've both said that it's a bit of a scary vault," Juda said. "I actually had to discontinue training the vault after the World Championships to lessen harm on my elbows. It's very, very grueling ... it takes a lot of impact."
Biles' biggest competitor in 2024, Brazil's Rebeca Andrade, while she does not do a yurchenko double pike, could have a vault move of her own named after her if she completes it at the Games.
Andrade has submitted her own vault to be named after her- a triple twisting Yurchenko. Since the skill has never been successfully competed in an international competition by a woman, it would be named the Andrade if she attempts it and pulls it off.
Andrade’s proposed vault has a start value of 6.0. Although lower than Simone’s, this is still a significant upgrade that could result in a huge score.
Although Andrade didn't compete in the triple twisting Yurchenko in the all-around final on Thursday, she will have another chance to get the skill named after her on August 3, when she competes in the vault final.
What other moves are named after Biles?
Biles has a total of five skills named after her so far- including two on the vault.
According to the International Gymnastics Federation’s code of points, in order for a skill to carry a gymnast’s name they must perform the move successfully and “without major fault” for the first time at an international competition such as the Olympics or World Championships.
Here's a look at all the moves:
Biles I (Floor exercise version)
She was just a teenager and recently minted national champion when Biles performed a tumbling pass at the 2013 world championships that she completes by doing a double layout with a half-twist at the end.
The move looks dangerous — Biles is essentially flying blind — but she and former coach Aimee Boorman came up with it because it was less taxing on her legs.
“It was almost kind of necessity is the mother of invention,” Boorman told The Associated Press in 2015. “Her calf was hurting. She had bone spurs in her ankles and she’s really good at floor with landings.”
Biles II (floor exercise version)
Biles returned to the sport in 2018 following a two-year layoff after winning the all-around at the 2016 Olympics.
Not content to merely repeat herself, Biles began working on a triple-twisting, double flip that is now known simply as “ the triple-double." She unveiled it while winning the 2019 U.S. Championships then did it again at the world championships a few months later when she won the fifth of her record six world all-around titles.
“I wanted to see how it looked,” she explained afterward.
Biles I (vault version)
As with a lot of gymnastics elements, Biles took a Cheng vault and added another layer of difficulty — this one an extra half twist on a vault originally done by China's Cheng Fei.
The vault requires Biles to do a round-off onto the vault, then a half-twist onto the table before doing two full twists. It entered the Code after she made it part of her routine at the 2018 world championships.
“I’m embarrassed to do floor and vault after something like that,” U.S. men's gymnast Yul Moldauer said in 2018. "You see Simone do that and she’s smiling the whole time. How does she do that?”
Biles I (balance beam version)
For all of her explosive tumbling, Biles is a wonder on balance beam, too, where she can make doing intricate moves on a four-inch-wide piece of wood seem almost casual.
The same year she debuted the triple-double on floor, she added a double-twisting, double-tucked dismount off the beam. She stuck it at the 2019 world championships, though she has since taken it out of her repetoire.
