Simone Biles. Elsa/Getty Images
Simone Biles said goodbye to one of her signature vault moves in the most extra — and iconic — way.
The gymnast, 27, held a funeral for her vault and the Yurchenko Double Pike via Instagram on Monday, September 2, after winning a gold medal in the category during the Paris Olympics.
“Rest in peace Yurchenko Double Pike,” Biles captioned two photos that showed her in full glam wearing a white tracksuit while perched on top of a vault. The apparatus was surrounded by generous bouquets of white flowers.
Biles’ followers loved the cheeky post and rushed to the comments to acknowledge her contributions to the sport. “Girl, you killed it. Literally,” one user wrote while another person commented, “Gone but literally never forgotten.” Fellow Olympian Laurie Hernandez responded with a saluting emoji and a separate commenter added, “This is the best thing I’ve seen on the internet.”
The Yurchenko Double Pike is now known as the “Biles II (vault)” after the Olympian became the first woman in history to land it during competition when she made her 2021 return at the GK U.S. Classic in Indianapolis after not competing for more than a year and a half. Biles once again executed the move flawlessly during the gymnastics world championship in Belgium in 2023, becoming the first woman to successfully perform it internationally. It is now an expected — and much anticipated — part of Biles’ routine and has a difficulty score of 6.6, the highest value in the history of the women’s vault. (Biles has a total of five skills named after her.)
Simone Biles is small in stature — just 4-foot-8 — but her reputation looms large. The Texas native started taking gymnastics classes at age 6 and earned an invite to the junior national team camp by 14. She had several world championship gold medals before she made her Olympics debut in Rio de Janeiro at […]
During the 2024 Paris Olympics, Biles earned gold medals in Women’s Artistic Individual All Around, Women’s Artistic Team All Around and Women’s Vault and a silver medal in Women’s Floor. At 27, Biles was the oldest American gymnast to qualify for the Olympics since 1952. Her triumph came four years after she withdrew from several events at the Tokyo Olympics due to her mental health and developing the twisties. (The twisties refer to a mental block that occurs when a gymnast loses their sense of space and direction while performing stunts in the air.)
While she may be putting the Yurchenko Double Pike to rest, Biles has left the door open to possibly compete again at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens are a match made in world-class athlete heaven. The Olympic gold medalist and the NFL player, who was then a Houston Texans safety, met via the dating app Raya in March 2020. “I didn’t know who she was,” Owens told Texas Monthly in June 2021. “I just hadn’t heard of […]
“Never say never,” Biles told NBC News in August. “The next Olympics is at home, so you just never know, but I am getting really old.”
The L.A. Games will be the first domestic Summer Olympics since Atlanta in 1996.