The Biles, explained: How one small woman transformed her sport

Simone Biles is the most decorated gymnast in history, and she’s about to make her third Olympic Games appearance at Paris 2024.

Biles, a six-time all-around world champion, and seven-time Olympic medallist, is fresh from winning her ninth US gymnastics championship - where she swept gold in all four individual apparatus’ (vault, uneven bars, balance beam, floor) along with all-around gold.

Simone Biles is the most decorated gymnast in history.Credit: Getty Images

Australian judge Trish Hade, who was the head judge on floor at the 2016 Olympics where Biles won gold, said everything stops when the US champion steps up to perform.

“When you just sit there and watch her perform, it’s amazing,” Hade said.

“She’s captivating, and it’s like the whole, entire stadium is watching her... When she finishes a routine she is very happy, and very excited, probably relieved, so you feel those emotions, and you feel like you’re sharing those emotions with her.”

Her impact on the gymnastics world has been revolutionary - so much that she’s had five skills named after her in the International Gymnastic Federation’s (FIG) code of points.

Last year, Australian gymnast Georgia Godwin joined the elite band of gymnast to have a signature move named after her. Having one skill attributed to you is momentous, but Biles has done it again, and again, defying expectations (and gravity) to pioneer skills that haven’t been done before.

Simone Biles watches gymnasts perform at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after she withdrew from the team finals.Credit: AP

Biles’ expected dominance in Paris is an even bigger feat when you consider she was experiencing the “twisties” the last time she stepped onto the Olympic stage at Tokyo 2020.

The “twisties” are a sensation where gymnasts feel disoriented or lost in the air, which makes tumbling and flipping extremely difficult. Biles was so affected by it in Tokyo that she decided to withdraw from the team final and the women’s all-around competition.

After overcoming a period where Biles conceded she didn’t trust herself to do gymnastics, she heads to Paris as the unequivocal favourite.

Here are the five moves named after Biles that she could perform at the Olympic Games.

Floor: Biles

Double layout backward with a half twist

To have a skill recognised in the gymnastics code of points, an athlete must successfully perform it at a high-level competition, says Hade.

“In order for a skill to be named after the gymnast, they have to compete the skill successfully at Olympics, world championships or a world cup or continental championships.

“So, it’s got to be performed internationally at a fairly high level event, and it also has to be of a certain difficulty to be named after you.”

The Biles on floor was officially recognised after Biles successfully performed it back in 2013.

“It’s quite unique,” says Hade. “The best gymnasts will just do the double layout [two somersaults], but she’s adding the extra half twist at the end.

“It makes the landing a lot more difficult because you’re changing directions. So you’re taking off backwards, and just before you land you do this half twist, and you end up facing forwards. It makes the landing a lot more difficult to control, and obviously, it adds a lot more risk.”

Floor: Biles II

Double somersault backwards with a triple twist

Biles first performed her second floor skill - the Biles II - in 2019. It is ranked a ‘J’ on the difficulty score - the highest rating a skill can have.

This skill is only performed by a select few at an international level, says Hade.

“That’s the highest level skill that there is in the women’s code of points. She’s certainly the only one that’s done it at a world championship level... Not many men in the world do it either... The thing that makes it [Biles II] so difficult is having the triple twist alongside the double rotation... You won’t get many gymnasts doing it with even one twist, let alone three.”

Biles can execute moves like this because she is the ideal gymnast, says Hade.

“She’s just an absolute unique athlete in terms of her physical speed and strength, and then on top of that, it’s her coordination, and then on top of that, it’s her spatial awareness.

“It’s all of those things combined that allows her to do these really difficult skills, on top of, obviously, good coaching, good dedication to training - all the other attributes that an athlete needs.”

Vault: Biles

Yurchenko half-on with two twists

With floor, beam and uneven bars, athletes accumulate their difficulty score throughout the routine, but with the vault, athletes are given a starting difficulty score based on the skill they’ve nominated to perform.

Gymnasts perform two vaults, with an average used to determine the final score. The harder the skill, the higher the difficulty score.

First performed by Biles in 2018, this vault skill is assigned a difficulty rating of 6.0 - the second-highest for vault in the women’s code of points.

“She runs up, and she does a round-off onto the board. And from the board, but before the vault table, she does a flip backwards but with a half turn,” says Hade. “So, she’s changing direction before she even hits the vault table, which makes it more complicated, and then the somersault off the table then has two twists.

“The fact that she changes direction off the board, onto the table, makes it even more difficult because you’ve got that change in direction, which means you need to have an even better exit off to have enough height to do the two twists.”

Vault: Biles II

Yurchenko with a piked double somersault

There is only one vault skill given the highest difficult rating of 6.4, and that’s Biles’ second vault.

Performed successfully for the first time in 2023, no other female athlete in the world has dared to compete it internationally.

“This one is more difficult because it’s got two somersaults, so you need more height in order to have more time in the air to do the two somersaults. And then obviously because you’re doing more rotations it’s harder to have a good landing,” Hade says.

“I’d say she would do [this] vault at the Olympics.”

Beam: Biles

Double somersault dismount with a double twist

Finally, we have the Biles on beam.

First performed in 2019, Biles does on beam what most gymnasts can’t do on floor.

“The reason this is so difficult is because in order to complete the salto [somersault] she’s got to have a really strong take-off from the beam, but the beam is only 10cm wide,” says Hade.

“So, she has to run along the beam at a high speed and complete a round-off, which is the preparation move, to give her enough power and height off the beam to then complete the salto with the double rotation and the two twists.

“So the element she does on floor - the triple, twisting double [Biles II] this element that she does off beam has just got one less twist than that, so [they’re] similar elements, it’s just very difficult because it’s off the beam.”

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