Simone Biles: The girl so good she has broken gymnastics
Simone Biles is so far ahead of the competition she is defying the sport’s systems.
This was the week Simone Biles broke gymnastics.
She forced the sport to expand the alphabetical range of difficulty for skills to include the first-ever J-rated skill for her triple-twisting double somersault on the floor exercise. She triggered a mini-riot on Twitter when she called out the international gymnastics federation for refusing to give her double-twisting double somersault off a beam more than an H.
She prompted the American gymnastics governing body — which she has also sharply criticised — to ask the federation to change its mind, to which the federation replied it was simply worried about anyone who isn’t Simone Biles doing the move.
Then she started competing.
At this point, Biles is setting some new kind of record every time she steps into an arena.
On Thursday she took a record fifth all-round title at the world gymnastics championships, which gave her a record 16th world gold medal and her 22nd world medal in total, also a record.
She opened with the toughest vault in the competition, a soaring Cheng, to grab the lead even after landing outside the lines and incurring a 0.1 deduction.
On her weakest event — uneven bars — she had a strong performance and nailed her dismount, performing immediately after American teammate Sunisa Lee came off the apparatus and ended her own medal chances.
On balance beam Biles opted for the last word in her fight with the federation by withholding the double-double dismount and offering “only” a G-rated single-twisting double somersault.
Finishing the competition on floor, Biles landed her triple-double, then another signature move, a double layout with half turn, then a front layout to single-twisting double somersault, and a double-double somersault, wrapping up the routine with a mic drop.
The power of her tumbling incurred several deductions as she stepped out of the boundaries of the floor mat.
Still, that didn’t prevent her winning by more than two points, in another competition where, once again, Biles was effectively alone at the top.
In the end she was flanked on the podium by Tang Xijing of China, a late substitution for the final after teammate Liu Tingting withdrew injured, and Angelina Melnikova of Russia. Melanie de Jesus dos Santos of France, a favoured medallist like Lee, also tumbled from the uneven bars and never regained her stride.
The foregone conclusion of victory and lack of any rivals doesn’t seem to have dimmed interest in the Biles show, which combines unmatched acrobatics with impeccable execution, almost every time and in every kind of competitive situation, and then tries to do it all again while staying almost entirely injury-free.
“Every box that you can have, she checks it. She is significantly better at all of these things (than any other competitor)”, said NBC commentator Tim Daggett.
“Certainly some people would like it to be closer. You can look at it that way. You can also look at it as a once in a lifetime occurrence … It’s really cool to be alive to have this opportunity to see her.”
That’s good, because Biles is also competing more than any other gymnast here.
The 22-year-old has qualified for every single apparatus final this weekend, giving her a chance to haul in as many as four more medals, though it will also require her to perform four more times after already putting in 12 routines across qualification, team finals and the all-round.
She anchored the US squad to its fifth consecutive team title, going up on all four events and pushing the US lead over its nearest rival to almost six points in a sport where most competitions are judged by tenths of a point.
In other words, Biles could have rested and it almost certainly would have turned out the same for the US. The other gymnasts on the team are capable of comfortable wins even when she’s not with them doing what the internet calls “Simone things”. But sitting out wouldn’t have allowed Biles to do what she cares about the most, which is besting Biles.
That was the competitive drive on display in her complaint about the H rating for the double-double dismount from beam. It still became the hardest balance beam dismount in the rule book — surpassing two already difficult dismounts that carry a G rating.
Biles’s point, and that of her supporters, was that even as she was credited as the best, she was short-changed on the extent to which she was the best.
The double double carries an H rating when it is performed in the floor exercise, on a surface that’s 4 feet lower and approximately 39 feet wider than the balance beam. (It’s still difficult.)
The international gymnastics federation agrees the double double off the beam is not just hard, it’s ridiculously hard — and wants to discourage other gymnasts from executing it poorly and more dangerously.
“There is added risk in landing of double saltos for beam dismounts (with or without twists), including a potential landing on the neck,” it said.
“There are many examples in the code where decisions have been made to protect the gymnasts and preserve the direction of the discipline.”
The federation cited two examples, one of which is decades old, of elements that were banned and deliberately downgraded for safety reasons.
In other instances of gymnasts performing high-risk, high-reward vaults, in particular, the code book has been used less bluntly, though some onlookers have suggested the federation step in.
In Biles’s bid to keep things interesting for Biles, she and her coaches are continuing to dream up new challenges. They have flirted with the idea she could perform a new skill on the uneven bars, which would give Biles a set of eponymous skills on all four apparatus. (Last year she established a new vault that happens to coexist with the “vault of death” as the most extreme in the code.)
She’s also continuing to push the American team, which repays the favour by providing her with her closest peers. In the weeks after Biles unveiled her jaw-dropping, never-thought-possible triple double in the floor exercise at the US national championships, two teammates released videos of them practising it in the gym.
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