Simone Biles once again showed fans how she should be part of the GOAT (greatest of all time) argument as she made history on Saturday.
Sporting a leotard with a rhinestoned goat, Biles became the first woman to land a Yurchenko double pike at the U.S. Classic. The move has never been done by a female gymnast in competition.
This was the first time the five-time Olympic medalist has competed in over a year. During her last outing, Biles won her fifth all-around title at the 2019 World Championships.
Not only did she wow the crowd with her historic vault, Biles debuted her floor routine choreographed by Sasha Farber, her former Dancing with the Stars partner. He visited her in April to help “clean up” the choreography, which was set to techno music.
Due to the level of difficulty, Biles received a solid 14.250. The routine featured some of her signature skills: a triple-twisting double backflip and a double layout half.
Before the Tokyo Olympics were delayed due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Biles told PEOPLE she had no plans of competing.
“In gymnastics, almost everything has been done so when you push boundaries there is a risk factor—risk vs reward,” she said last March. “Gymnastics can be a dangerous sport so you have to be smart.”
But, she changed her mind a few months ago.
“There haven’t been too many times where I was like, ‘Oh, that was really scary. Maybe we shouldn’t do that,'” she said to Texas Monthly in March. “It’s actually been like, ‘Wow, this is feasible, we can do this.'”
“I feel like it might be a better bet to do it in the all-around final because you do get that one-touch warm up, rather than vault finals where you don’t,” she added. “I feel like we just have to go in and weigh the options, see what’s smart, get a feel of the vault.”
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