The one vault too hard for Simone Biles and Rebeca Andrade: The triple-twisting Yurchenko

Simone Biles has pushed the boundaries of difficulty in women’s gymnastics to heights previously thought unfathomable. We’re in an age of innovation for the sport, where skills invented just a decade prior across all events (the laid-out tkachev on uneven bars! the laid-out double double on floor!) have now become commonplace for the top gymnasts.

But there’s one skill that’s eluded the gymnastics world during this era, a skill that people have been attempting for 15 years to no avail –– something that even Biles in all her might hasn’t been able to master: the triple-twisting Yurchenko vault. 

What exactly makes this elusive vault too hard for even the greatest gymnasts of all time to conquer? First of all, let’s break it down: “Yurchenko” refers to the way a gymnast approaches the vault table. If a gymnast pushes at the table while facing it, that’s a “handspring” entry. If a gymnast does a roundoff into a back handspring onto the table, that’s a Yurchenko-style vault. Throughout the Olympics, you’ll see a number of the gymnasts do a Yurchenko vault with two twists in the air. Sometimes, though, you’ll see the top contenders do a Yurchenko with two-and-a-half twists, a.k.a. “the Amanar”. 

It was first competed by the eponymous Romanian gymnast Simona Amanar in 2000 and exploded in popularity at the 2012 Olympics where the skill helped the US women to win team gold in London. At the time, the NY Times wrote: "Want to be Gold in vault? Then you've got to have an Amanar." Back in 2016, the Amanar helped Simone Biles to win the Olympic vault final by the greatest margin ever. 

Around the same time, gymnasts around the world started attempting to innovate one step further by trying to add an extra half-twist –– i.e. the triple-twisting Yurchenko.

A half twist more may not sound like a lot, but it’s proven to be impossible so far for even the best female gymnasts to put to their feet. Over the past two decades gymnasts have tried and tried to do it to no avail. 

One of the earliest known attempts was Russia’s Tatiana Nabieva in 2009. The problem with her attempt is she had to “cheat” the last half-twist after landing by taking a step around once she was on the ground. 

Tatiana Nabieva attempting the triple twisting Yurchenko vault at the 2009 Japan Cup

The same issue happened when North Korea’s Hong Un Jong, one of the most decorated vaulters in gymnastics history, attempted the skill at the 2016 Olympics. In training at the games, Hong was able to put the vault to her feet, but only with the help of a coach literally pushing her into the air. 

Hong Un Jong attempting the triple twisting Yurchenko vault in training in 2016

When Hong went for it in the vault final without that extra bump, she found herself still twisting into the ground to complete the last rotation. That’s a big no-no for gymnasts on a safety level, as continuing to turn while landing has been the cause of a number of ACL tears and other knee injuries in the sport (see: former World medalists Aliya Mustafina, Rebecca Bross, Asia D’Amato –– the list goes on). Luckily, Hong made it through safely, but the uncontrolled momentum caused her to spring back and fall. 

Hong Un Jong attempting the triple twisting Yurchenko vault at the 2016 Rio Olympics

Hong was all but guaranteed a silver medal behind Biles if she played it safe. So why try with so much at stake? Part of the incentive, beyond beating Biles for gold, was that if she successfully completed the triple then Hong would’ve gotten the vault named after herself. The first gymnast to perform a new skill at a competition officiated by the FIG (International Gymnastics Federation) gets to have it named in the sport’s rulebook. 

Though no one else has tried it in competition, others have trained the triple over the years, like Olympic vault medalists MyKayla Skinner and Maria Paseka. Training video often only exemplify the difficulty of getting three rotations around: Romania’s Sabrina Voeina (competing in Monday’s floor final) has posted a few videos doing a triple twisting yurchenko into a foam pit, with her finishing the third twist only once fully submerged in the foam blocks, about four feet below ground level. 

Sabrina Voiena attempting the triple twisting Yurchenko vault in training in 2020

Alex McMurtry, one of the most decorated NCAA gymnasts, attempted the vault into a foam pit as her final hurrah to gymnastics. McMurtry fared a little better than Voeina, finishing the twist only two feet below ground — nonetheless, far from where a competition mat would be. 

Alex McMurtry attempting the triple twisting Yurchenko vault in training at University of Florida in 2018

McMurtry was known for doing one of the most powerful triple-twisting floor passes in gymnastics; it just goes to show that on vault, where you’re pushing off your hands, it’s a whole other ballgame.

For years, another gymnast trained the vault with an eye towards completing it — Simone Biles. Unlike all the others before and after, there’s footage of Biles in training able to put the vault to her feet on a landing mat.

Simone Biles attempting the triple twisting Yurchenko vault in training around 2013

Biles initially planned to compete the vault during her first Olympic run leading up to 2016, but in training struggled to finish rotating the vault fully before landingThe 2013 documentary “Beyond The Routine” captures a then-16-year-old Simone Biles practicing the triple twisting Yurchenko at her gym. “That was not good,” Biles says after crashing an attempt. “They’re so scary,” she tells a coach. “My feet don’t get around, but my body does.” 

By the time the Rio Olympics rolled around, Biles had all but abandoned her goals of competing it, calling the vault “crazy.”

Some would call her double pike vault which she debuted in 2021 “crazier” than the triple. While the triple involves adding a half-twist, the double pike is a full extra backflip on top of anything that’s been done before. Ultimately, it speaks to just how challenging that seemingly small difference is.

At the 2024 Paris games, Rebeca Andrade submitted the triple-twisting Yurchenko. Andrade has emerged in recent years as the one real challenger to Biles in her senior career. Biles noted as much after Andrade took silver in the all-around final, saying "I’ve never had an athlete that close, so it definitely put me on my toes.”

By submitting the triple twisting Yurchenko as a possibility for the vault final, Andrade put the pressure on Simone to bring out the double pike. If Biles played it safe and Andrade stuck the triple, she would’ve overtaken Biles for vault gold. The route wasn’t without risk –– if Biles fell on the double pike, it also would’ve opened up the door for Andrade, which is exactly what happened at last year’s World Championships. 

Ultimately, Biles did one of her best ever and made it impossible for Andrade to sneak in even with the triple. So Andrade abandoned plans to debut the vault and settled for a safer option to secure the silver. 

No skill in the sport of gymnastics has quite the same storied history of so many gymnasts from around the world training for so long and being unable to execute or too reluctant to try. But if Biles’ enduring presence and the new age of innovative gymnastics have taught us anything, it’s that there might be a new gymnast right around the corner who can make the impossible, finally, possible.

Ari Saperstein is a multimedia journalist. His work has appeared in outlets like The New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Vox, The New Yorker and The Advocate. Ari is the creator of the award-winning sports podcast Blind Landing. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram.