Simone Biles: understand the most difficult jump in gymnastics – 10/02/2023 – Sport

American gymnast and Olympic champion Simone Biles, 26, stole the spotlight during the artistic gymnastics World Cup being held in Antwerp, Belgium, by performing a jump never seen before in major international competitions.

The sports star successfully performed the movement known as the Yurchenko double pike on Sunday (1), which will be called Biles 2 in honor of the athlete. It is considered one of the most difficult jumps to perform in gymnastics.

The jump is performed in about six seconds and begins with a run towards the springboard that propels Biles’ body towards the horse, so that she makes the first movement, called “Yurchenko”.

In it, the athlete jumps backwards towards the support device, supporting herself on it with her arms extended and her legs in the air, remaining for a fraction of seconds in a kind of handstand. The initial movement of the jump was named after world champion gymnast Natalia Yurchenko, from the Soviet Union.

Next, the “double” in the name of the jump refers to the two somersaults (complete turn of the body in the air) performed by the gymnast immediately after leaving the springboard. And the “pike” refers to the shape of the gymnast’s body during the execution of the double somersault: with the hands under the knees and the legs straight.

“Of all the jumps performed by all the gymnasts so far, the international gymnastics federation understood that this is the one with the greatest degree of difficulty”, explains Henrique Motta, sporting director of the CBG (Brazilian Gymnastics Confederation), in an interview with Sheet straight from the World Cup, where he is following the Brazilian team.

“Compared to all the other jumps presented before, they never scored as much as this one [da Simone Biles]”, added Motta, remembering that the movement is considered the most difficult only in the jumping event, without taking into account the exercises on other equipment.

The difficulty of the movement lies mainly in the fact that the gymnast completes two spins while in the air, which requires extreme strength and skill to prevent an incomplete high-speed jump from resulting in a dangerous landing with the head facing the ground.

The jump earned the gymnast a score of 15.266 at the World Championships and leadership on the device and in the general ranking, even though she suffered a 0.5 discount due to the coach having positioned himself next to the landing mattress, to ensure safety and in case the athlete needed it. of some help in completing the movement – ​​which was not the case.

At the end of the day’s qualifiers, the American scored 14.949 points in the jump and secured the lead in the device. She was followed by Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, who scored 14.633 points, and Korean Yeo Seojeong, with 14.516 points.

In the general ranking considering the presentations on all devices, Biles also appears ahead with 58.865 points. Next comes compatriot Shilese Jones, with 56.932 points, the British Jessica Gadirova (56.766) and the Brazilian Rebeca Andrade (56.599).

“I hope people realize that this is perhaps the only time in their lives that they will see a jump like this in women’s gymnastics. This should be valued,” Frenchman Laurent Landi, coach of the Olympic gymnastics star, told AFP.

The movement was carried out on Sunday during the qualifying round of the tournament. The gymnast will be able to repeat the jump in the team final (day 4), in the individual final (day 6) and in the vault final (day 7), but the definition of the maneuvers to be performed may change between now and then.

Biles performed the jump for the first time in 2021 at a championship in the United States and was expected to try the movement during the Tokyo Olympics — the naming of the athlete’s name is only confirmed after executing the jump in a renowned international competition .

However, she chose not to compete at the Olympic Games in Japan to deal with issues related to mental health, and had been away from international competitions since then, until her return at the World Cup in Antwerp.

The gymnast explained that her withdrawal was due to a phenomenon known as “twisties”, a mental block in which the athlete loses the sense of space while performing acrobatics in the air.

Current world champion, Brazilian Rebeca Andrade appears as one of the American gymnast’s main opponents in the competition in Belgium.

This will be the fifth gymnastics movement named after multi-champion Simone Biles, two on the floor, two on the vault and one on the balance beam. She is the second gymnast with the most maneuvers named after her in gymnastics, behind only Russian Svetlana Khorkina, with eight.