Simone Biles completes difficult vault move at Worlds, now to be named after her

Acclaimed U.S. gymnast Simone Biles achieved a career milestone on Sunday, becoming the first female gymnast to complete the Yurchenko double pike, now having the jump named after her. 

Biles completed the difficult vault during the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, where she scored a 15.266 for an 58.865 total in her all-around set. 

According to Reuters, the Yurchenko double pike is the most difficult jump in the women’s score code, being rated at 6.4 points by the technical committee in anticipation of it being performed. 

Now the Yurchenko double pike will be named the Biles II, the second vault jump to be named after the star gymnast since 2018. 

This comes as Biles, who is considered to be the greatest competitor in her sport, recently returned to the sport she had dominated in after a long absence. 

Biles, 26, garnered headlines during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for sitting out of competitions to focus on her mental health and using her platform to speak up on the issue. 

Biles later explained to the media that she was was dealing with the twisties, a term used in the gymnastic community in which a competitor can’t tell where their body should spin or move. She returned to competition, winning a bronze medal in the balance beam final.

Biles’ own advocacy for mental health followed through in the sports world, as other athletes such as former NBA all-star John Wall and Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka also speaking up about their recent mental health struggles. 

In an interview with Olympics.com, Biles said that she went through another “twisties” episode, adding that she didn’t know if she would be able to compete again. 

“I didn’t know if I was ever going to be able to compete again because there were multiple times this year where I was in the gym and I was like, ‘I’m actually terrified of this full-in, like I’m not doing it again, never going to do it,’” Biles told the sports news outlet. 

“And then I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to come back another day, another day.’”