The most decorated gymnast in history is officially retiring one of her signature moves. On Monday, Simone Biles took to Instagram to bid farewell to the Yurchenko double pike, which earned her a gold medal at the Paris Olympics this year. In the photos captioned “rest in peace yurchenko double pike,” Biles sits atop a gymnastics vault with all white athleisure, surrounded by white flowers. Also known as the Biles II, the difficult vault routine involves a round-off entry onto the springboard followed by a back-handspring onto the vaulting table.
From there, Biles performs two flips with her body in a pike position. In 2021, Biles became the first woman to add a second flip to the standard vault, elevating its difficulty. It’s considered one of the most dangerous moves for any athlete to attempt, assigned a difficulty score of 6.4, the highest in the women’s sport. In 2021, the New York Times described the move as “so perilous and challenging that no other woman has attempted it in competition, and it is unlikely that any woman in the world is even training to give it a try.” In her Netflix docuseries Simone Biles: Rising, the Spring native admitted she still finds the vault skill frightening despite performing it so many times. “It’s just scary. And it’s every time you do it, you’re scared,” she said.
