The last time Simone Biles attempted to vault in a competition arena at the Olympic Games all hell broke loose. As Biles launched herself into her extremely difficult Amanar vault, she completely lost track of herself in the air, only managing one and a half twists instead of the planned two and a half. After withdrawing from the team final, Biles would spend most of her Olympic experience in the stands.
Three years on Biles returned to the Olympic competition floor on Thursday morning as the women’s gymnastics teams worked their way through podium training, the one chance that gymnasts will have to train inside the Bercy Arena before the gymnastics competitions begin with the men’s qualifications on Saturday.
In her third rotation of the day Biles flitted down the vault runway before launching herself on to the springboard with a back handspring. The 27-year-old increased her upward momentum by rebounding off the top of the vault table and wrapping in two piked backwards somersaults. She landed with her chest upright, her feet completely still: “Perfect! We’ll take this one in a heartbeat. It was really good,” said a smiling Cécile Canqueteau-Landi, one of Biles’s coaches, afterwards.
Days before the gymnastics competition begins Biles has already produced one of the greatest pieces of gymnastics the Olympics has ever seen. Her Yurchenko Double Pike vault, which has been officially known as the Biles II since she unveiled it internationally at the world championships last year, is one of the hardest skills in the sport. No other female gymnast in the world vaults with enough power, strong technique or repulsion off the table to even think about attempting the vault. It is also one of the most difficult vaults in the men’s code of points.
Difficult skills are often produced at the detriment of form and technique, with gymnasts often having to force their hardest skills around, leading to issues like crossed legs or low chests on their landing which receive significant judging deductions. Not only has Biles shown that she can consistently perform the vault, she does so with near impeccable form, her legs squeezed tightly together and completely straight at the knee.
The Biles II requires no twisting and so last year, as she began her comeback after taking a break from the sport, Biles opted to reintroduce the vault in part because she still lacked confidence in her twisting following the mental block she suffered in Tokyo. It is reflective of Biles’s greatness that her idea of easing her way back into the sport was attempting one of the most difficult skills possible.
Such is the challenge this vault presents, Biles still had to mentally come to terms with executing it. Having debuted the vault in US competitions in 2019, last year Biles only attempted the vault with her other coach, Laurent Landi, standing beside her on the competition podium. Gymnasts receive an automatic neutral deduction of .5 points if their coach is on the competition floor during the routine.
After nailing the vault throughout last summer, Biles fell attempting it in the world championships vault final and she finished in second place behind Rebeca Andrade of Brazil. Even her errors are somehow impressive; she fell because she actually had too much power for the skill. The vault commands such a high start value (6.4) that without the automatic half-point deduction, Biles would have won the vault final with a fall. This year, with many more months of training behind her, she now attempts the skill without any coach nearby.
The objective of podium training is for gymnasts to adjust to the equipment on the field of play, which often feels significantly different on an elevated podium, and the dynamics of the arena as they finish their preparations. It was clear from Biles’s performance on Thursday that she was ready and relaxed on all pieces as she worked her way through the four apparatus with no issues.
While Biles was focused on the job at hand, she also laughed and chatted with her team-mates Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera, the former three gymnasts all returning from Tokyo to form one of the most experienced teams the US has ever boasted.
After a strong day of training, the US team, led by Biles, marched through the weaving mixed zone without stopping, their coaches delegated to speak with the media. They have been here before and in the qualification round on Sunday morning they will attempt to re-establish their dominance at the Olympics.
Difficult vaulting was a common theme on Thursday as the Bercy Arena witnessed the return of the Amanar vault. The Amanar, also known as the Yurchenko two and a half, was one of the defining skills of women’s gymnastics around a decade ago, an essential element that separated the top contenders from the rest. In addition to its significant number of twists, the vault finishes with a forward landing, meaning the gymnast cannot see the ground before the landing.
But in recent years it has faded from view. In Tokyo few other than Biles and Andrade, arguably the two greatest ever vaulters, attempted an Amanar, and Andrade has not performed it outside of an Olympic Games in nearly a decade. The International Gymnastics Federation controversially chose to lower the difficulty of the vault, leading many to conclude that it was no longer worth attempting such a difficult and dangerous vault.
In Paris the Amanar renaissance is actually coming from Great Britain, with British gymnasts continuing to perform such difficult gymnastics on the biggest stages. During their early morning podium training, the British gymnasts Alice Kinsella and Ruby Evans attempted the enormous vault and after some early difficulties they both landed the vault to their feet. “It’s pretty cool to bring back the Amanar,” said Kinsella, smiling.
Neither gymnast was sure about when they might attempt the vault in competition, but they were pleased with their progress. Kinsella actually prefers the Amanar vault to the very common Yurchenko double twist, an easier vault with only two twists, as she can unleash her full power when she attempts the more difficult version: “I think we just need to feel the block [vault table] and we’ll be fine,” said Evans. “We know what it feels like now so hopefully we can do it.”
