BELIZE CITY, Mon. Oct. 2, 2023

Belizean American gymnast Simone Biles, 26, will likely be adding to her impressive record 25 World Championship medals (19 of them gold medals), as she dominates the Gymnastic World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.

This Friday, Biles will attempt to win a record sixth World All-Around title 10 years after she won her first at age 16. Her seven Olympic medals ties Shannon Miller for the most Olympic medals won by an American gymnast, and is the equal of ninth-most overall. She is the most decorated gymnast in the history of the Gymnastics World Championships.

She will have the chance to have a fifth skill named after her if she successfully lands a Yurchenko double pike, a vault no woman other than Biles has ever attempted in competition.

Simone Biles has won every meet she’s entered since making her return to elite gymnastics three months ago, after a 2-year mental health break during which she got married.

The “Worlds”, as the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships is popularly known, also marks the first time since the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that Biles will compete as part of Team USA, headlining a squad that is heavily favored to win its seventh straight gold.

So far in the preliminaries, the qualifying round at World Championships, when Simone Biles performs the most difficult vault in women’s gymnastics, the judges can hardly find errors. But they have been lowering her score by an additional half-point because her coach, Laurent Landi, has been standing on the landing mat when Biles performs this risky vault. He doesn’t touch Biles, but he’s there — just in case. Having a spotter nearby on vault is not allowed, so according to the rules, Biles must be penalized.

Rarely does an athlete or coach knowingly concede points, but that’s what Biles and Landi have chosen to do all season. The decision came “more from Laurent” than from Biles, said Cecile Landi, who coaches with her husband, and their reasoning is that “it’s a very difficult vault, and one mistake can have serious consequences.”

So, Biles has taken this half-point deduction each time she has performed the Yurchenko double pike, now known as the Biles II. Biles’s coaches have chosen to prioritize safety—even if this rule does not.

Before Biles unveiled this new vault, no woman had attempted a double-flipping Yurchenko in a competition. The extra flip makes Biles’s skill more dangerous than the versions her peers perform. If a gymnast doesn’t have enough height and power, she may not finish the rotations and make it to her feet. Her hand could slip on the table. Her push off the table could be abnormal. By then, there’s little a gymnast could do to correct the mistake in the air. But a coach may be able to help her avoid landing on her head.

Biles practiced two Yurchenko double pike vaults during a training session last Thursday, and those attempts, Cecile Landi said, gave Biles confidence. Her excellent vault during the qualifying round should add more reassurance. Whether Biles performs this vault and if her coach stands on the mat, are day-by-day decisions. Biles’s vault has a difficulty value of 6.4. Her competitors with the most potential are mostly relying on the Cheng (5.6 difficulty score) or the 2 1/2-twist Yurchenko (5.4). Biles has an edge even with the penalty.