From then on, as long as she stayed healthy, she was sure to be the gold medal favorite in Thursday’s all-around final. Biles frequently bounds backward, or even falls, on her Yurchenko double pike, the most difficult vault in women’s gymnastics. An all-around final featuring Biles is similar to the most talented football team with the best in-game execution getting a two-touchdown lead before the game kicks off. Biles and Andrade will begin the final on vault, perhaps the apparatus most critical to Andrade’s gold medal hopes. It’s a skill that has never been successfully performed in women’s gymnastics, and the vault would receive a 6.0 difficulty score.

Source: Washington Post August 01, 2024 15:51 UTC