Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast in the history of the sport on Friday after winning her sixth individual all-around title at the world championships.
To celebrate her accomplishment, Biles won another medal.
On Saturday, Biles competed in the vault, and nearly added another gold medal to her collection despite suffering a fall on one of her two attempts.
Biles' first vault was a Yurchenko double pike, now known officially as the Biles II. After slightly over-rotating, Biles hit the ground. She bounced back quickly for her second vault, which she landed clean.
Simone Biles (USA) - Vault - 2023 World Gymnastics Championships - Women's Event Finals #ARTWorlds2023 pic.twitter.com/G3fCssjpsJ
— Set Queen (@Yarotska101) October 7, 2023
Biles finished with an average score of 14.549 between her two vaults, which ultimately put her in second behind Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, who scored 14.750.
But the battle for gold was even closer than their scores made it appear. During her first attempt, Biles elected to have her coach Laurent Landi stand at the mat for safety reasons. This decision came with a half-point deduction, which Biles knowingly took.
The difficulty scores of Biles’s vault attempts are so high that she comes into competitions with a huge advantage. The Biles II comes with a difficulty score of 6.4. According to The Washington Post, three of Biles’s teammates compete with vaults that have a difficulty score of 5.0.
Coming into the competition, Biles could take the half-point deduction without giving up the majority of her advantage in difficulty score. But looking at the final standings, with Biles coming up 0.201 points short, it's not hard to figure out how a half-point deduction impacted her result.
Still, even with her fall, Biles took home silver, extending her record medal count to 28 at worlds.
