Simone Biles bid farewell to the signature move that earned her fame and, more importantly, gold.
America’s most-decorated Olympic gymnast appears ready for her next chapter just one month after winning three gold and one silver in Paris.
The 2024 Olympic Games will now mark the final time fans witnessed Biles perform the Yurchenko Double Pike, the move that earned her gold on vault last month.
The 27-year-old announced that she is parting ways with the move – also known as the Biles II, her fifth eponymous skill.
‘R.I.P yurchenko double pike,’ the gymnastic icon posted to he Instagram story with several tomb stone emojis.
Biles added a photo of her posing in an all-white athleisure set from Athleta atop a vault table, which was made to look like a coffin surrounded by beautiful, white floral arrangements.
The Yurchenko Double Pike is the hardest vault in women’s gymnastics. Yurchenko-style vaults feature the entry that is named for Natalia Yurchenko, a world champion for the Soviet Union, and are the common type at the elite level.
However, Biles took the skill to the next level when she became the first woman to perform a Yurchenko-style vault with two flips in the air. All other female gymnasts perform the Yurchenko with one flip.
Yet, despite the skill leaving fans awestruck, it left Biles herself filled with anxiety.
‘Usually, when you do a new skill, you’re scared the first couple of times, and then you kind of get used to it,’ Biles previously said in an episode of her docuseries, Simone vs Herself.
‘But every time I stand down at that vault runway, I’m like praying.’
‘The scariest thing for me off the table is making sure I have a good grip on my leg,’ she added. ‘Because, if not, it can slip, and then that’s when the mistakes usually happen.’
Although the Yurchenko Double Pike is not set to make a comeback, Biles will be back in action later this month as she hits the road for the Gold Over America tour.
The tour, a traveling gymnastics exhibition which will feature a host of gymnastic stars including Biles and her gold-medal-winning USA teammates, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles and Hezly Rivera, will kick off on September 16 in Oceanside, California.
It will make 30 stops across the United States, finishing in Detroit on November 3.
