OLYMPIC GAMES | GYMNASTICS
What are the five gymnastics skills named after Simone Biles?
The American talent is arguably the world’s greatest gymnast, and she rightly has various moves named after her.
Simone Biles has recovered her form for the Olympic Games. At 27-years-old, the gymnast from Ohio has a chance to win a medal in each of the 6 competitions she is participating in, despite the physical discomfort she has been fighting since last Sunday, when she injured her calf during the warm-up.
Despite still being several years away from her thirties, Biles is one of the veteran gymnasts at the Olympic Games. The extreme explosiveness and elasticity that such a discipline requires means that most athletes have a fleeting career that begins at a very early age. The American, in fact, has left her mark on the sport beyond what happens in Paris.
One of the clear signs of the enormous legacy left by Simone Biles is the ease with which she has managed to invent new movements and even improve the existing ones: as a consequence, many of these new combinations and techniques are baptised under the name of Biles herself.
The five movements named after Simone Biles
The American gymnast is almost certainly one of the best in history for her dominance and versatility within the different disciplines. In more than a decade-long career, she has accumulated a total of 7 Olympic medals and 30 world medals.
The Biles (floor): This is a double stretch with a half twist on the second somersault. She first performed this movement at the 2013 World Championships when she was only 16 years old.
Biles II (floor): This is a triple double, or what amounts to the same thing: two somersaults and three twists in the air. She showed off this technique for the first time at the 2019 World Championships.
The Biles (vault): The peculiarity of this movement is the spin start to finish frontally with two full somersaults. She first did this move at the 2018 World Championships.
The Biles II (vault): This movement is incredibly complex, both because of the very unique start, as well as the flight that features two somersaults. It is the last of her own movements, developed for the 2023 World Championships.
The Biles (beam): This movement was the one used to do the dismount at the 2019 World Championship. It features a twist and a double somersault of enormous technical difficulty.