PARIS — Simone Biles is one of one, much like the challenging vault that only she alone attempts.
It was, as expected, Biles’s Yurchenko double pike that secured her Olympic gold medal here in the vault final of the Paris Games. She took only a small hop back on her landing and received a one-tenth deduction for landing out of bounds, but otherwise it looked and felt as good as gold in the moment.
Biles received a score of 15.700 for the YDP and a 14.900 on her second vault, a Cheng, for an average of 15.300 to put her atop the leaderboard and essentially untouchable.
This may have been the last time fans will see a Yurchenko double pike, as Biles said after the competition that she won’t perform it again, but she left the door opening for competing in the 2028 L.A. Games.
“Next Olympics is at home, so you just never know. But I am getting really old,” she said.
Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade placed second to snag silver while bronze medalist Jade Carey found redemption from the Tokyo Games, where she missed out on a vault medal after a stumble during her run up to the vault table.
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Biles can really suck all of the drama out of a final, posting a score that’s more than a full point ahead of her competition at the midpoint of the event. But that’s what the 27-year-old superstar does at her best; the only competition is between Biles herself and history.
OH WOW. 🤩
Simone Biles just NAILED this vault in the final! #ParisOlympics
📺 NBC, E! and Peacock pic.twitter.com/fgFeDjZuQg
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 3, 2024
It is Biles’ second Olympic gold medal in the vault final and the seventh overall Olympic gold medal of her career. She has already won two gold medals here in impressive fashion, in the team event and then in the all-around. And she’ll have another opportunity to add to her haul with the balance beam and floor exercise finals still to come on Monday.
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These Games have been one of redemption and resilience for Biles, who pulled out of the Tokyo Games during the team final because of a mental block that gymnasts call “the twisties.” She was feeling disoriented and getting lost in the air, which put her at great risk of serious injury.
Instead of that moment defining her career, Biles came back. She worked on both her physical and mental health and remained the most dominant gymnast on the planet and the Greatest Of All Time, as her diamond-encrusted goat necklace reminds us all.
To win gold on vault, Biles had to nail both her vaunted Yurchenko double pike, a vault so difficult that she is the only female gymnast who attempts it, and the Cheng, a vault that requires an immediate half twist onto the vault table followed by a 1.5-twisting layout. That YDP is what made Biles the heavy favorite coming into the vault final. And she delivered.
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(Photo: Julian Finney / Getty Images)
