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. Biles now has 10 Olympic medals in her career, tied for the third most by a female gymnast. She also boosted her medal count at major international competitions to 40, the most by any gymnast.
The crowd inside a packed Bercy Arena roared when Biles was introduced. Wearing a sequined red leotard, she delivered another show-stopping performance in what could be the last vault competition of her life.
She drilled her Yurchenko double pike, exploding off the block and then flipping backward twice with her hands clasped behind her knees. She landed with a big bounce — a nod to the energy she generates — with her right foot on the out-of-bounds line.
The judges dinged her a tenth of a point for that. It hardly mattered. Her score of 15.700 meant she merely needed to avoid disaster on her second vault to win. Instead, she almost stuck her Cheng, which requires a roundoff onto the springboard, then a half twist onto the block followed by 1 1/2 twists while doing a forward somersault.
The ensuing 14.900 meant the rest of the eight-woman field was going for second.
Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, who finished runner-up to Biles in the all-around final on Thursday, took silver, just ahead of American Jade Carey, who captured the bronze.
Biles entered the vault finals among the favorites again but faced a tough challenge from Andrade, the defending Olympic champion in the event.
The Brazilian sensation and vault champion in Tokyo did not try her new element but landed two excellent vaults, including a strong Cheng. That earned her an average score of 14.966 points to claim the silver, her third medal of the Paris Games after a silver in the all-around and a bronze in the team final.
Carey, who slipped during the women's vault final in Tokyo and finished eighth, earned her third Olympic medal to go with the floor exercise gold she won in Tokyo and the team gold she captured with Biles on Tuesday.
Biles has two events remaining in Paris, the balance beam and floor exercise finals. They represent an opportunity to match her historic medal total from the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, in which she won four golds and a bronze as a 19-year-old.
As her 2024 Olympic run nears its end, Biles has already begun to field questions about whether she plans to retire from the sport. At 27 years old, she is already older than almost all of her competitors. By the time the 2028 Olympics begin, she will be 31.
For now, she is still having fun, she said Saturday. "Not many people in the world can do it to this level. Once we're out here, the floor is our stage, so it just feels so freeing for us, because we're in our element, we're having fun, we're doing what we love to do," she said.
"But at a certain point, as we get older, it does get a little bit more scary. We're more aware of what we're doing, what can happen," she said. "So our consciousness is there. But it's always fun."
With her signature Biles II vault, Simone Biles earned the higher score of two. The element, also known as the Yurchenko double pike, is not only very dangerous and super difficult to land, but is the same move that beset Biles with a sudden case of the "twisties" during the Tokyo Olympics. The affliction forced her to withdraw from most of her events that summer, including the vault final.
On Saturday, eight years after she triumphed in Rio de Janeiro, the most decorated American gymnast claimed her second gold in the event.
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. Biles now has 10 Olympic medals in her career, tied for the third most by a female gymnast. She also boosted her medal count at major international competitions to 40, the most by any gymnast. Saturday's gold is her third medal of the Paris Games.
Rebeca Andrade of Brazil is taking the silver and American Jade Carey will take home the bronze.
The crowd inside a packed Bercy Arena roared when Biles was introduced. Wearing a sequined red leotard, she delivered another show-stopping performance in what could be the last vault competition of her life.
She drilled her Yurchenko double pike, exploding off the block and then flipping backward twice with her hands clasped behind her knees. She landed with a big bounce — a nod to the energy she generates — with her right foot on the out-of-bounds line.
The judges dinged her a tenth of a point for that. It hardly mattered. Her score of 15.700 meant she merely needed to avoid disaster on her second vault to win. Instead, she almost stuck her Cheng, also known as the Biles I, which requires a roundoff onto the springboard, then a half twist onto the block followed by 1 1/2 twists while doing a forward somersault.
The ensuing 14.900 meant the rest of the eight-woman field was going for second.
