Biles makes history with Yurchenko double pike vault at US Classic

Agencies/TNN Indianapolis/Doha Four-time Olympic champion and defending world champion gymnast Simone Biles became the first woman to land the Yurchenko do...

Agencies/TNNIndianapolis/DohaFour-time Olympic champion and defending world champion gymnast Simone Biles became the first woman to land the Yurchenko double pike vault move in competition at the US Classic in Indianapolis on Saturday.Biles won the all-around title in what was her first meet since October 2019.The Yurchenko double pike – a high-difficulty skill historically only done by men – is a roundoff onto the springboard, followed by a back handspring onto the vaulting table, and ending with a piked double backflip into the air to landing.Biles, 24, performed the move and then added two extra hops for a slightly imperfect landing.“I was just thinking, ‘Do it like training. Don’t try to like overdo anything,’” she said afterward, “because I have a tendency as soon as I raise my hand to kind of overpower things, and I did a little bit, but at least I was on my feet. It’s a new vault and I’m proud of how today went.”Overall, the four-time Olympic gold medalist successfully defended her US Classic all-around title with a score of 58.400 in what was her first competition in more than a year and a half. Biles took the top score on both balance beam and floor exercise.Biles said was not happy that the International Gymnastics Federation gave a preliminary 6.6 difficulty score for the element.“We were hoping it would be a 6.8 (difficulty score),” she said. “But that’s OK.”Biles has won every meet she has entered since the 2013 US Championships.In November, 2018, Biles created history in Doha achieving victory in the individual vault competition at the Aspire Dome to become the first-ever gymnast to win 13 world championship gold medals.