The Yurchenko Double Pike Has Been Renamed After Gymnast Simone Biles
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Simone Biles is continuing to dominate in gymnastics, cementing her status as the GOAT. This weekend, she enthralled the crowd, landing her Yurchenko double pike during competition at the World Championships. And now the skill is now being renamed to the “Biles II” in the International Gymnastics Federation’s Code of Points.
At the 2021 U.S. Classic, Biles nailed the vault, becoming the first female gymnast ever to perform a Yurchenko double pike vault. According to news outlet, Gymnastics Now, “The Biles II is a roundoff back handspring with two saltos in the piked position.”
It’s predecessor, “[t]he Biles I is a roundoff, half twist on, front double full off and was named for Biles after she successfully competed it at the 2018 world championships in Doha, Qatar.”
In order for a skill to be named after a gymnast, the skill must be performed in an international competition. Two other gymnastic skills named after Biles are on floor, and the other is on the balance beam. With this newest addition, Biles now has five gymnastic skills named after her.
This is Biles’s first international event since coming down with the “twisties” during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. In Belgium, Biles was truly a dominant force for the U.S. team at Worlds, leading qualifying rounds “through two subdivisions. She registered the best scores on floor exercise, vault and balance beam. She finished second behind teammate Shilese Jones on uneven bars,” reports Fox News.
The difficulty score for this skill as valued at 6.4 points. Last year, the most challenging vault performed was given a difficulty score of 5.6.
In performing the challenging vault, Biles received a 0.634 deduction for execution. Pundits attribute this due to her landing because oftentimes she bounces backward since she’s so powerful. Otherwise, her exceptional technique lends it hard for the judges to find fault.
Another 0.5 detraction from her score involves her coach Laurent Landi. When Biles performs the maneuver, Landi stands on the landing mat. “He doesn’t touch Biles, but he’s there just in case. Having a spotter nearby on vault is not allowed, so according to the rules, Biles must be penalized,” writes the Washington Post.
The final score for the Biles’s “roundoff onto the springboard, then a back handspring onto the vaulting table, where she then completed the double pikes” aka the new “Biles II” was a 15.266.
As the World Championships continue, the seven-time Olympic medalist is expected to compete in all four individual final events as well as the all-around final.
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