Gymnastics phenom Simone Biles has once again made the impossible look easy in a mind-boggling video posted to social media.
“Haven’t done a double tuck since I was probably 13 – here you go,” the powerful tumbler wrote cheekily on Tuesday accompanied by the five-second clip.
Lightly spotted by a coach wearing a mask, her double tuck, however, is casually preceded by an even more challenging skill called a double layout, which is essentially the same move but with the body held in a straight position. Doing so makes rotation significantly less aerodynamic, thus making it more difficult for the gymnast to complete and carrying a higher value when performed in competition.
Fellow teammates are heard cheering her on in the background of the video, which appears to take place at a socially distanced workout session at the World Champions Centre in her hometown of Spring, Texas. Biles trains at the gym owned by her parents and is coached by Laurent Landi, previously of the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy.
Gymnasts receive additional points for connecting back-to-back elements in their routines. A double back tuck is a component of a common tumbling pass in many elite gymnasts’ floor routines by itself, the connection of which to double back layout is not even defined in the women’s code of points set by the sport’s governing body, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).
While unlikely she would ever perform this jaw-dropping and unorthodox skill in competition, Biles has already made history on multiple occasions in the sport. The 23-year-old is the most decorated American gymnast with four Olympic gold medals in the all-around, floor, beam and team events. She has 19 gold medals at the Wold Championships and has four skills (two on floor exercise) named after her after she was the first athlete to perform them in international competitions.
Biles is currently training for the Tokyo summer Olympic games, which were originally slated to take place this summer. The Games have been rescheduled to start in July 2021 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which she described as a “letdown.”
“A year is a lot for elite athletes,” Biles told the Associated Press in April. “It feels more than a year on your body, trust me. Especially gymnastics, the impact we take. It’s your whole entire body, it’s not just your legs or your feet or your arms, we have to make sure your whole body is in check.”