PARIS.- Simone Biles won his seventh Olympic gold medal by flying in the vault final at the Paris Games on Saturday.
The 27-year-old American averaged 15.300 points with her classic spin, the Yurchenko double pike, to win the event for the second time, eight years after doing so in Rio de Janeiro.
Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, who seconded Biles to the all-around final on Thursday, took the silver medal, just ahead of American Jade Carey, who nabbed bronze.
Biles is only the second woman to win the vault title twice. The other was Vera Casalavska, who won the title in 1964 and 1968.
The win left Biles with a grand total of 10 career Olympic medals, tied for third in women’s gymnastics history. It also increased her medal haul at major international competitions to 40, the most ever by a female gymnast.
Biles could add to that total on Monday with a top-three finish on balance beam and floor exercise.
The crowd at the Arena de Bercy erupted in applause when Biles was announced. Dressed in a red leotard, the American gave another memorable performance in what could be the last vault competition of her career.
She landed her Yurchenko double pike after speeding onto the springboard, doing two back flips in a position with her hands clasped behind her knees. She landed with a big bounce, courtesy of the energy she generated, and her right foot landed on the line that delimits the zone.
The judges docked her a point for that. It didn’t matter. Her score of 15.700 meant she only needed to avoid a catastrophe on her second attempt to take the win. Instead, she performed a Cheng, which requires a cartwheel to the springboard, a half-turn to the vault, then a turn and a half and a turn to the front.
The score of 14.900 points meant that the remaining eight women had to aim for silver at most.
Digna rival
Brazil’s Andrade, the Tokyo champion, performed two excellent jumps to take second place and claim her third medal of the Games, after winning silver in the all-around and bronze in the team category. Andrade’s average of 14.966 was well above the rest of the competitors.
Carey, who stumbled in the vault final in Tokyo and finished eighth, won her third Olympic medal, adding to the floor she won in Tokyo and the team gold she won with Biles last Tuesday.
Source: AP