Vault, Women

The vault in Paris was set to be a battle between the 2016 Champion Simone Biles (USA) and the 2020 Olympic Champion Rebeca Andrade (BRA). In Tokyo, Biles had qualified first for the final but had given up her spot after suffering from mental health issues. Andrade had taken the gold but had further proven her qualities by winning the World title in 2021 and 2023. On the latter occasion, the Brazilian had beaten Biles, who won silver despite falling while doing the “Biles II” skill. An outsider for the gold was Biles’ compatriot Jade Carey, the 2022 World Champion.

In qualifying, Biles made clear she was the woman to beat, recording an amazing 15.800 on her first jump. Her second jump was a full point lower, but still the third score of the competition. Andrade and Carey followed at a respectable distance from Biles. The final was not much different. Biles opened with the same jump. Although she landed with one foot slightly outside the landing area (costing her a 0.1 penalty), her 15.700 score all but secured the gold medal. Andrade improved on her qualifying scores, but not enough to seriously threaten Biles. Carey, meanwhile, held off North Korea’s An Chang-Ok to earn the final spot on the podium.

The gold in the vault was the seventh for Simone Biles, making her only the seventh Olympic gymnast with seven Olympic gold medals, and the first to achieve that since Nikolay Andrianov in 1980. She also became only the second woman to record a repeat win in the vault, after Věra Čáslavská in 1964-68.