The last occasion Simone Biles vaulted in a competitive setting at the Olympic Games was chaotic. As Biles executed her challenging Amanar vault, she momentarily lost her orientation mid-air, completing only one and a half twists instead of the intended two and a half. After stepping back from the team final, Biles spent the majority of her Olympic journey watching from the stands.
Three years later, Biles graced the Olympic competition floor once again on Thursday morning as the women’s gymnastics teams engaged in podium training—the sole opportunity for gymnasts to practice inside the Bercy Arena before the gymnastics events commence with the men’s qualifications on Saturday.
During her third rotation, Biles sprinted down the vault runway, executing a back handspring onto the springboard. The 27-year-old amplified her upward thrust by rebounding off the vault table and performing two piked backward somersaults. She landed perfectly, with her chest lifted and feet locked in place: “Perfect! We’ll take this one in a heartbeat. It was really good,” remarked a beaming Cécile Canqueteau-Landi, one of Biles’s coaches, after her performance.
Just days before the gymnastics competition kicks off, Biles has already delivered one of the most extraordinary displays of gymnastics in Olympic history. Her Yurchenko Double Pike vault, officially dubbed the Biles II since she unveiled it at last year’s world championships, is recognized as one of the toughest maneuvers in the sport. No other female gymnast in the world possesses the power, technique, or repulsion off the table to even contemplate executing this vault. Notably, it ranks among the most challenging vaults in the men’s scoring system as well.
Performing difficult skills often compromises form and technique, leading to common mistakes such as crossed legs or lower chest placements upon landing, which can incur significant penalties. Yet, Biles has demonstrated her ability to execute the vault consistently, maintaining nearly flawless form with her legs tightly together and fully extended at the knees.
The Biles II involves no twisting. Thus, last year, as she started her comeback following a hiatus from the sport, Biles chose to reintroduce this vault partly due to her lingering uncertainty surrounding twisting after the mental block she faced in Tokyo. It speaks volumes about Biles’s caliber that her method of gradually easing back into competition involved attempting one of the sport’s most challenging skills.
Given the complexities of this vault, Biles still had to reconcile executing it mentally. After first trying it in US competitions back in 2019, she only attempted it last year with her other coach, Laurent Landi, present at her side on the competition podium. Gymnasts incur an automatic neutral deduction of .5 points if their coach remains on the competition floor during their routine.
Following a successful summer training period, Biles fell while attempting the vault in the world championships vault final, ultimately placing second behind Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade. Interestingly, her errors in this instance were still remarkable; she fell because she generated too much power for the skill. The vault has a high start value (6.4), meaning, without the automatic half-point deduction, Biles would have won the vault final even with a fall. With several additional months of training now behind her, this year she is executing the skill without any coach nearby.
Podium training allows gymnasts to adapt to the equipment on the competition floor, which often feels notably different from an elevated podium, and to acclimatize to the arena’s dynamics before completing their preparations. Biles’s performance on Thursday visibly reflected her readiness and relaxation as she navigated all four apparatuses without issues.
While Biles was focused on her training, she also shared laughter and conversations with teammates Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera. The three gymnasts returning from Tokyo contribute to one of the most seasoned teams the US has ever assembled.
After a solid day of training, the US team, led by Biles, moved through the media mixed zone without stopping, leaving their coaches to interact with reporters. Having experienced this before, they will set out to reassert their dominance during the qualification round on Sunday morning.
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Challenging vaults dominated the day as the Bercy Arena saw the return of the Amanar vault. The Amanar, also recognized as the Yurchenko two and a half, was a defining element of women’s gymnastics a decade ago, crucial in distinguishing top competitors from the rest. With multiple twists and a forward landing, this vault poses the challenge of the gymnast landing without visibility of the ground beforehand.
However, it has been less prevalent in recent years. At the Tokyo Olympics, only Biles and Andrade—arguably the greatest vaulters of all time—attempted an Amanar, with Andrade not executing it outside the Olympics in nearly ten years. The International Gymnastics Federation controversially opted to lower the difficulty of the vault, leading many to believe that attempting such a challenging and perilous vault was no longer justifiable.
In Paris, the resurgence of the Amanar is stemmed from Great Britain, with British gymnasts continuing to execute challenging routines on major platforms. During the early morning podium training, British gymnasts Alice Kinsella and Ruby Evans made attempts at the formidable vault, successfully landing it after some initial struggles. “It’s pretty cool to bring back the Amanar,” said a smiling Kinsella.
While neither gymnast was definitive about when they might perform the vault in competition, they expressed satisfaction with their development. Kinsella shared a preference for the Amanar over the more common Yurchenko double twist, an easier vault with just two twists, as she feels she can fully unleash her power with the more challenging version: “I think we just need to feel the block [vault table] and we’ll be fine,” said Evans. “We understand the sensation now, so hopefully we can execute it well.”
