Paris Olympics: Simone Biles flies to another gold in vault

Paris Olympics: Simone Biles flies to another gold in vault

Simone Biles wasn’t leaving anything to chance in the vault final, soaring high off the table and delivering her signature, eponymous double backflip in pike position.

It’s called the Biles II, the hardest vault in the world and named after her because she was the first to ever do it in competition. Most won’t even attempt it in practice due to the danger of missing it.

With a degree of difficulty of 6.400, the highest in women’s gymnastics, Biles sometimes calls it her “big guns” that can close out competitions immediately. In this case her execution was nearly flawless (9.4) giving her massive 15.700 on her first attempt.

At that point, this was all but over. She added a Cheng (5.6 degree of difficulty) on her second attempt that yielded a 14.900.

Her two vault average was 15.300.

That was enough to sweep her way to a 10th Olympic medal and seventh gold by winning the individual vault competition here Saturday. It was her third gold in three attempts here in Paris. She won gold Tuesday in the team event and Thursday in the all-around.

Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, who dueled Biles Thursday in the all-around competition, took silver with a 14.966 average. American Jade Carey took the bronze with a 14.466 average.

Biles qualified 0.700 in front of Andrade and owned a 0.900 degree of difficulty advantage, making her very difficult to defeat. Once she stuck the Biles II though, it was simple math. No one else in the competition attempted a vault with a difficulty above 5.600. Most were at 5.000. It was a competition for silver.

No one else in the competition landed a single vault as high as Biles’ average. Andrade’s 15.100 on the Cheng was the closest.

Essentially, there’s never been anything like Simone Biles in gymnastics, let alone the vault, the perfect outlet for her powerhouse athleticism.

Biles’ 10 Olympic medals moves her into third place all-time for female gymnasts behind Larisa Latynina who won 18 during the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Games and Vera Caslavska of the former Czechoslovakia who earned 11 in 1964 and 1968.

Biles won four golds and a bronze in Rio 2016, a silver and bronze in Tokyo 2021 and three gold so far here. She has two more events (balance beam and floor) and could move to second on the all time list.

One of Biles’ golds in Rio was the vault. She is also a two-time world champion on the apparatus and has two skills named after her, the Biles and the Biles II, a double back flip in pike position that commands the highest degree of difficulty (6.4) in the event.

Medals Table

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	11	20	19	50
2	France	11	14	15	40
3	China	15	11	9	35
4	Great Britain	10	10	12	32
5	Australia	12	7	5	24
6	Republic of Korea	9	6	5	20
7	Japan	8	4	8	20
8	Italy	6	8	4	18
9	Netherlands	5	4	4	13
10	Canada	3	3	6	12
11	Germany	4	3	2	9
12	Brazil	1	4	4	9
13	Romania	3	3	1	7
14	New Zealand	2	4	1	7
15	Hungary	2	2	2	6
16	Israel	1	4	1	6
17	Switzerland	1	1	4	6
18	Sweden	1	2	2	5
19	Spain	1	1	3	5
20	Belgium	2	0	2	4
20	Hong Kong	2	0	2	4
20	Ireland	2	0	2	4
23	South Africa	1	1	2	4
24	Greece	0	1	3	4
24	Poland	0	1	3	4
26	Croatia	2	0	1	3
27	Georgia	1	2	0	3
28	Kazakhstan	1	0	2	3
28	Uzbekistan	1	0	2	3
30	Mexico	0	2	1	3
31	India	0	0	3	3
32	Azerbaijan	2	0	0	2
33	Czech Republic	1	0	1	2
33	Guatemala	1	0	1	2
35	DPR Korea	0	2	0	2
36	Kosovo	0	1	1	2
36	Turkey	0	1	1	2
36	Ukraine	0	1	1	2
39	Moldova	0	0	2	2
39	Tajikistan	0	0	2	2
41	Argentina	1	0	0	1
41	Ecuador	1	0	0	1
41	Philippines	1	0	0	1
41	Serbia	1	0	0	1
41	Slovenia	1	0	0	1
41	Uganda	1	0	0	1
47	Denmark	0	1	0	1
47	Ethiopia	0	1	0	1
47	Fiji	0	1	0	1
47	Mongolia	0	1	0	1
47	Tunisia	0	1	0	1
52	Austria	0	0	1	1
52	Chinese Taipei	0	0	1	1
52	Egypt	0	0	1	1
52	Lithuania	0	0	1	1
52	Portugal	0	0	1	1
52	Slovakia	0	0	1	1
58	Afghanistan	0	0	0	0
58	Albania	0	0	0	0
58	Algeria	0	0	0	0
58	American Samoa	0	0	0	0
58	Andorra	0	0	0	0
58	Angola	0	0	0	0
58	Antigua and Barbuda	0	0	0	0
58	Armenia	0	0	0	0
58	Aruba	0	0	0	0
58	Bahamas	0	0	0	0
58	Bahrain	0	0	0	0
58	Bangladesh	0	0	0	0
58	Barbados	0	0	0	0
58	Belize	0	0	0	0
58	Benin	0	0	0	0
58	Bermuda	0	0	0	0
58	Bhutan	0	0	0	0
58	Bolivia	0	0	0	0
58	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0	0	0	0
58	Botswana	0	0	0	0
58	British Virgin Islands	0	0	0	0
58	Brunei	0	0	0	0
58	Bulgaria	0	0	0	0
58	Burkina Faso	0	0	0	0
58	Burundi	0	0	0	0
58	Cambodia	0	0	0	0
58	Cameroon	0	0	0	0
58	Cape Verde	0	0	0	0
58	Cayman Islands	0	0	0	0
58	Central African Republic	0	0	0	0
58	Chad	0	0	0	0
58	Chile	0	0	0	0
58	Colombia	0	0	0	0
58	Comoros	0	0	0	0
58	Congo	0	0	0	0
58	Cook Islands	0	0	0	0
58	Costa Rica	0	0	0	0
58	Cuba	0	0	0	0
58	Cyprus	0	0	0	0
58	Djibouti	0	0	0	0
58	Dominica	0	0	0	0
58	Dominican Republic	0	0	0	0
58	Democratic Republic of the Congo	0	0	0	0
58	El Salvador	0	0	0	0
58	Equatorial Guinea	0	0	0	0
58	Eritrea	0	0	0	0
58	Estonia	0	0	0	0
58	Micronesia	0	0	0	0
58	Finland	0	0	0	0
58	Gabon	0	0	0	0
58	Gambia	0	0	0	0
58	Ghana	0	0	0	0
58	Grenada	0	0	0	0
58	Guam	0	0	0	0
58	Guinea	0	0	0	0
58	Guinea-Bissau	0	0	0	0
58	Guyana	0	0	0	0
58	Haiti	0	0	0	0
58	Honduras	0	0	0	0
58	Iceland	0	0	0	0
58	Individual Neutral Athletes	0	0	0	0
58	Indonesia	0	0	0	0
58	Iran	0	0	0	0
58	Iraq	0	0	0	0
58	Cote d’Ivoire	0	0	0	0
58	Jamaica	0	0	0	0
58	Jordan	0	0	0	0
58	Kenya	0	0	0	0
58	Kiribati	0	0	0	0
58	Kuwait	0	0	0	0
58	Kyrgyzstan	0	0	0	0
58	Laos	0	0	0	0
58	Latvia	0	0	0	0
58	Lebanon	0	0	0	0
58	Lesotho	0	0	0	0
58	Liberia	0	0	0	0
58	Libya	0	0	0	0
58	Liechtenstein	0	0	0	0
58	Luxembourg	0	0	0	0
58	Macedonia	0	0	0	0
58	Madagascar	0	0	0	0
58	Malawi	0	0	0	0
58	Malaysia	0	0	0	0
58	Maldives	0	0	0	0
58	Mali	0	0	0	0
58	Malta	0	0	0	0
58	Marshall Islands	0	0	0	0
58	Mauritania	0	0	0	0
58	Mauritius	0	0	0	0
58	Monaco	0	0	0	0
58	Montenegro	0	0	0	0
58	Morocco	0	0	0	0
58	Mozambique	0	0	0	0
58	Myanmar	0	0	0	0
58	Namibia	0	0	0	0
58	Nepal	0	0	0	0
58	Nicaragua	0	0	0	0
58	Niger	0	0	0	0
58	Nigeria	0	0	0	0
58	Norway	0	0	0	0
58	Oman	0	0	0	0
58	Pakistan	0	0	0	0
58	Palestine	0	0	0	0
58	Panama	0	0	0	0
58	Papua New Guinea	0	0	0	0
58	Paraguay	0	0	0	0
58	Peru	0	0	0	0
58	Puerto Rico	0	0	0	0
58	Qatar	0	0	0	0
58	Nauru	0	0	0	0
58	Palau	0	0	0	0
58	Rwanda	0	0	0	0
58	Samoa	0	0	0	0
58	San Marino	0	0	0	0
58	Sao Tome and Principe	0	0	0	0
58	Saudi Arabia	0	0	0	0
58	Senegal	0	0	0	0
58	Seychelles	0	0	0	0
58	Sierra Leone	0	0	0	0
58	Singapore	0	0	0	0
58	Solomon Islands	0	0	0	0
58	Somalia	0	0	0	0
58	South Sudan	0	0	0	0
58	Sri Lanka	0	0	0	0
58	St. Kitts and Nevis	0	0	0	0
58	Saint Lucia	0	0	0	0
58	St. Vincent and Grenadines	0	0	0	0
58	Sudan	0	0	0	0
58	Suriname	0	0	0	0
58	Swaziland	0	0	0	0
58	Syria	0	0	0	0
58	Tanzania	0	0	0	0
58	Thailand	0	0	0	0
58	Timor-Leste	0	0	0	0
58	Togo	0	0	0	0
58	Tonga	0	0	0	0
58	Trinidad and Tobago	0	0	0	0
58	Turkmenistan	0	0	0	0
58	Tuvalu	0	0	0	0
58	U.S. Virgin Islands	0	0	0	0
58	United Arab Emirates	0	0	0	0
58	Uruguay	0	0	0	0
58	Vanuatu	0	0	0	0
58	Venezuela	0	0	0	0
58	Vietnam	0	0	0	0
58	Yemen	0	0	0	0
58	Zambia	0	0	0	0
58	Zimbabwe	0	0	0	0