The
American has emphasized innovation since Rio, yet will find herself penalized at this week’s world championships for performing some of the most difficult skills ever attempted
During last week’s qualification rounds of the 2019 world championships, Simone Biles got two skills named after her. During the Americans’ first rotation on floor, Biles performed the triple twisting double somersault that went viral after national championships in August. And then as the anchor for the US on their final event, the balance beam, Biles did two back handsprings into a double twisting double somersault. She landed with just a small hop back. Biles turned to the judges, saluted and gave herself a round of applause before stepping off the podium to rejoin her team and await her score.
She scored 14.8. This was lower than she would’ve liked it to be, lower than she expected it to be when she first introduced the dismount at US nationals in August. When
USA Gymnastics submitted the skill on Biles’s behalf last week before the start of podium training in Stuttgart, the women’s technical committee of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) gave the double double – the most difficult beam dismount ever attempted – an H rating when everyone had been expecting them to give it a J, the same evaluation that her triple double on floor was awarded. (Skills are rated with letters with A being the easiest. As the letters progress through the alphabet, the difficulty rating – and point value – of the skill increases.) J skills are worth a full point. In a sport like gymnastics where margins of victory can be razor-thin, earning a point for a single element is a major boost.