Simone Biles won her second Olympic vault title after nailing her iconic namesake vault – the “Biles II” — on Saturday in Paris.
Teammate Jade Carey earned the bronze medal while Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade took silver.
Biles, 27, landed the Yurchenko double pike – which is the most difficult in the women’s rulebook – to earn a 15.700. In her second vault, she landed a “Cheng” – a half-turn onto the vaulting table followed by a 1.5 twist into the air – that earned a 14.900. This gave her an average of 15.300 for her two vaults, putting her comfortably in the lead.
Biles is the second woman to win vault twice, joining Vera Casalavska of Czechoslovakia as a two-time gold medalist on the vault. Casalavska went back to back in 1964 and 1968. The gold medal is Biles’ 10th Olympic medal and seventh gold.
Andrade, who has arguably been Biles’ closest competitor during these Olympic Games, had a 14.966 average between her two vaults to comfortably earn silver. The vault champion in Tokyo finished runner-up to Biles in the all-around final on Thursday and with Brazil, won bronze in the team final.
Carey, who helped the U.S. win the team all-around gold medal, earned an average of 14.466 for her two vaults – a Cheng and a double-twisting Yurchenko. This was her third Olympic medal to go with the floor exercise gold she won in Tokyo and the team gold captured on Tuesday.
Biles will have two more chances to boost her medal haul in Paris. She will compete in the balance beam and floor exercise finals on Monday.
