Yurchenko, Cheng, Amanar, Carpado, Mortal, Biles, Nemour… Gymnastics is a catalogue of techniques and movements that the ancients have passed down and Simone Biles gathers it all, transforms it into art, speed, movement. In hallucinogenic emotions, and Rebeca Andrade, with her. Another side of the same coin. That of talent and the determination to show it, and fight.
One, Biles, 27 years old, with so much strength, power, height, distance, that it makes her technical mastery, which is great, seem less, because it is impossible to control her vitality one hundred percent. Beauty is the movement, the ecstasy. The other, Andrade, with her perfect interpretation of all the nuances of gymnastics, the elegance overflowing from her character, and her golden eyebrows, is a beauty. Beauty is the calm she achieves in the air when she spins.
During her seven days in Paris, and Monday still to go, Simone Biles has gone through several phases in her process of recovery and reconstruction after the crisis in Tokyo, which left her on the edge of the cesspool of unresolvable depression. Each phase, a gold medal, the only symbol that calms her. The victory leading the United States meant her resurrection for the cause; the victory in the individual competition, her emancipation, and the third, the one she achieved this Saturday in the vault competition, means her vindication, her affirmation above the critics, the memories that still hurt her, the haters that in Tokyo, when she decided to retire and think about herself, about her mental health, they insulted her by calling her a wimp, a coward…
Biles’ third Olympic gold in Paris is the seventh of her career, after four in Rio 2016, and her tenth of any colour, surpassing Nadia Comaneci. On Monday, in the floor and balance beam finals, Biles could claim eighth and ninth golds, surpassing the mark from Rio, when she was the child prodigy. The transition to the woman she is today was hard and painful, but it has made her the only athlete in Paris who takes the sporting world by storm, and reigns supreme. Biles won with 15.300 points (the average of her two vaults, the Biles II and a cheng) ahead of Brazilian Rebeca Andrade (14.966), also second in the all-around, and her compatriot Jade Carey (14.466).
No one is talking anymore. Only Simone Biles, with two of her own jumps. One, the Biles II (an entrance in Yurchenko, a round off before touching the springboard to get onto the vaulting vault on her back), a powerful block on the apparatus that transforms all the horizontal energy accumulated in her 25 meters on the run into such a vertical takeoff speed that she flies out, and controls her body in the air to do a double somersault in a tent, with straight knees, without bending them as in the easier tuck. The exercise is so difficult (6.4) that a normal execution already raises the score above that of any rival. But in the afternoon dedicated to shutting mouths and closing wounds, and to make the diamond of her goat pendant shine even more, Biles jumped it better than ever, with her usual little step out that penalizes her, because it is impossible to control more energy on landing. 15.700 is the score. And the privileged few who were at the Bercy pyramid this Saturday gave thanks to fate, because, as the gymnast hinted, this may be the last time she performs it in competition.
Her second jump is a cheng (roundoff plus half turn to enter the platform facing forward and a somersault with a pirouette and a half), Andrade territory.
If Biles in the air is a devil, audacious movement, acrobatics, energy, the Brazilian is a motionless statue who is capable of staying suspended for a minute. Her blocking could be used in catalogues that try to describe the ideal. The shape of her legs, so straight, so close together, is impeccable. Her kingdom is the cheng, which she nails again. She gets 9.500 in execution, so close to the 10 that she burns, but the difficulty of the exercise is only 5.6, eight-tenths less than Biles II. 15.100. In her second jump, Andrade could have launched herself with the triple twist, but she settled for an amanar (a Yurchenko entry, but with a half twist after the roundoff and the somersault) to arrive facing the blocking and a backflight with two and a half twists. She dragged herself a little on the landing. Though her form in the air remains unique, and even if she had launched into a triple twist, she would not have caught Biles, who when she jumps, everyone else looks on and says, “Will we ever be able to do something like that?” They sigh and give up. There can be no better vindication.
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