Since returning to the Olympics after a two-year hiatus, Simone Biles has steadily made history, making her return one of the greatest comebacks in gymnastics history.
She did it again Sunday, Oct. 1, at the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastic Championships in Antwerp, Belgium. She became the first woman (internationally) to execute a complex vault called the Yurchenko double pike, NBC Sports reported.
Judges gave the 19-time world champ a score of 6.4, a 0.8 difference from last year’s 5.6 score for the same stunt.
Since she’s the first person to land the vault at an international competition, she will have the skill named after her.
So far, the 26-year-old Olympic champ has four skills named after her — two are on the floor, one on the beam and one on the vault. The Yurchenko double pike will be called the Biles II.
Biles dominated the competition at the World Artistic Gymnastic Championships with an all-around score of 58.865. The United States (which includes silver-medalist Shilese Jones, world champs Skye Blakely and Leanne Wong, Joscelyn Roberson and Kayla DiCello) placed first with a score of 171.395.
Biles’ coach, Laurent Landi, shared a statement with USA Today after Biles successfully performed the vault.
“It’s great,” Landi said. “People, I hope realize that’s maybe one of the last times you’re going to see a vault like that in your life from a woman gymnast. So, I think it’s time to appreciate it.”
Landi added, “She made it. She handled her nerves, handled the pressure. Last event, so there was fatigue and everything.”
Before the World Artistic Gymnastic Championships, Biles performed the Yurchenko double pike vault in early August at a gymnastics meet in Chicago, landing a score of 15.400. It was her first time returning to the mat since her mental health break.
Simone Biles has been on her A-game since returning to competing after taking a hiatus for her mental health at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Per a MadameNoire report, Biles scored her eighth U.S. gymnastics championship title in late August in San Jose, California, breaking her tie with Alfred Joachim. She also became the eldest female gymnast to win a U.S. Gymnast Championship title in their 60-year history.
Prior to her break, the Olympic gymnasts landed in the Guinness World Record for the most gold medals in 2019.
A year later, she announced a halt in her career to focus on her mental health, which gained much backlash. And despite the hold on competing, she was still being recognized for her skills as a gymnast, receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022 and being named TIME‘s Athlete of the Year.
