Simone Biles' new jump, three meters high upside down and 150 revolutions per minute: "Gymnastics has changed"
Since May 2021, when Simone Biles presented her latest innovation in the vault, a Yurchenko double backflip, many specialists had analyzed the technical aspects of the exercise, but only a few measured every detail with scrupulous accuracy.. One of them was John Eric Goff, a doctor in Physics at the University of Lynchburg, who after examining the videos of the great American diva offered his data to the Houston Chronicle newspaper.. According to Goff, for Biles to nail that jump she must accelerate up to 25 km/h during the race, push off the colt with her hands for just 16 hundredths of a second, spin at 150 revolutions per minute (a little less than half that of the blades of a helicopter) and rise, at the maximum point and upside down, three meters above the ground. “I could dunk on a regulation basket if I had a ball at my feet,” Goff concluded.. Now, after her second gold at the Antwerp World Championships, won on Friday during the individual final of the all-around competition, experts wonder to what extent and when Biles will be able to continue revolutionizing gymnastics.
“You can probably modify your exercises, try other combinations and difficulties,” says Diana Plaza, technical secretary of the women's and men's teams of the Spanish Federation (RFEG).. «You can see that he is having a lot of fun. Her 26 years are an adult age for a gymnast, but they also give her a maturity that will allow her to continue enjoying herself, if she considers it that way.. It is not ruled out that he could dare with another element whose difficulty would make him almost unapproachable for his rivals,” Plaza adds to EL MUNDO.
«You have more than earned the right to choose your future. Let's hope she doesn't get injured and we can see her at the Paris Games, where we will all hope she can get rid of her Tokyo thorn.. Afterwards, I think he will make the decision to retire,” predicts Gervasio Deferr, two-time Olympic champion in Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 in vaulting.. However, the Barcelonan never presented the Yurchenko with a double backflip in official competition, already registered by the International Federation under the name Biles II, due to the risks it entailed at the time of scoring.. “I only trained him by falling into the foam pool,” he recalls.. What does Biles have, then, to dare to take a jump that until now was forbidden to men?
«A unique and differential talent»
«His speed and power are brutal. “She is also brave like herself,” Deferr continues, before detailing each aspect of the jump.. «To enter the double pike, the previous phases have to be technically perfect: the shoulder angle must be exact to gain the necessary height during the flight and the passage of the hands from the rack to the legs must be very fast» , recounts those thousandths of a second only within your reach. The risks, logically, multiply during landing. «If you go too tight you can break both ankles at the same time. I think that the jump is even more worth it because of all the dangers it entails and because of how easy it is to fail,” Deferr adds, in conversation with this newspaper.
Plaza, likewise, completes the analysis with another key: «Of course Simone has power and speed, but what makes her different from the rest is her technique in terms of the biomechanics of the element.. It is a unique and differential talent.”. Yesterday, during the final of the complete competition, Biles limited herself to a Yurchenko with a pirouette and a half in a plank, with a difficulty of 5.6, compared to 6.4 for the pirouette double somersault. Her final total (58,399) was enough to surpass Rebeca Andrade (56,766) and Shilese Jones (56,766), win the gold and now add 27 medals in the World Championships.. Today, during the first day of the apparatus final, with the rack and the asymmetrical parallels, presumably he will resort to his most difficult yet to further adorn a sublime record.
Leaving aside the distance, Biles' case brings to mind that of Elena Produnova, the first jumper who dared to do a pigeon with a double somersault forward.. The Russian woman's feat dates back to the year 2000 and since then no one has been able to surpass it.. Therefore, it is worth asking whether this Biles II should be considered a true milestone in the history of gymnastics.. At this point, Plaza and Deferr's criteria diverge.
“Without downplaying the importance of this wonderful leap, I do not believe that this is a milestone, since it is in line with what was offered during the last decade, when the 10, the mandatory exercises were eliminated and the difficulty rating was opened,” he points out. the former gymnast, seventh with Spain at the Atlanta Games in the complete team competition. «Today, even if you fall, you can win a gold. “Before, when perfection in execution was sought, in addition to subjectivity and originality, any error frustrated the medal.”. In Plaza's opinion, the great milestone of this sport bears the signature of Nadia Comaneci. «With it we evolve from a slow gymnastics with little flight phase, to a much faster one, with a greater flight phase and links. “From a girl's physique we went to an athlete's physique.”
On the other hand, Deferr is firmly committed to the historical significance of Biles. «Gymnastics has changed, because women now see that it is possible to equip themselves with men. And that transforms the perspective. Of course their physical characteristics are different, but they know now that by working things out. To finish his reasoning, the world runner-up on floor in Tianjin 1999 and Stuttgart 2007 resorts to an almost poetic image. «The boys seem to break the track or the trampoline, but she doesn't sound, it seems like it's not difficult for her. “It is capable of rising and falling perfectly, as if it were placed on top of a twig.”