“Simone Biles Stuns the World with Jaw-Dropping Vault Performance at 27—Can we enjoy her in 2028?”

Simone Biles, at 27, continues to defy age expectations in gymnastics, securing her seventh Olympic gold in the vault final on Saturday. Despite her triumph, Biles was coy about whether this would be her last competition. She did announce retiring her signature Yurchenko double pike vault after nailing it at the Paris Olympics but left open the possibility of competing in the Los Angeles Games in 2028, saying, “Never say never. Next Olympics are at home. So you just never know. I am getting really old.”

In Paris, Biles dazzled in a sequined red leotard, averaging 15.300 on her two vaults, and clinched a second gold in the event, echoing her success from Rio de Janeiro eight years earlier. Leading up to Tokyo, Biles had experimented with the Yurchenko double pike, the most challenging vault ever performed by a woman, but didn’t execute it in the Olympics. Instead, she attempted the Amanar, which involves 2½ twists. The “twisties” forced her to withdraw from several events, reshaping her career path.

This experience left both Biles and her co-coach Laurent Landi wary of revisiting the Amanar while training for Paris. They decided to pursue the more difficult Yurchenko double pike, a vault requiring precision and control. Over the past year, Biles mastered it, earning the vault a place in the sport’s Code of Points as the fifth element named after her.

Despite making it look effortless, Biles admitted the Yurchenko double pike causes anxiety due to its complexity. It demands not just power but controlled execution to avoid dangerous landings. Before her performance, Landi signaled her to stay calm. Biles executed the vault flawlessly, though she received a slight penalty for stepping out of bounds.

Her score of 15.700 on the first vault meant she only needed a safe second vault to secure gold. She delivered an almost perfect Cheng vault, earning 14.9 and clinching the title. Rebeca Andrade of Brazil took silver, narrowly beating American Jade Carey, who celebrated her redemption after a disappointing finish in Tokyo.

While Carey’s Olympic journey concludes, Biles still has two more events in Paris—the balance beam and floor exercise finals. With 10 career medals, Biles is tied for the third most by a female gymnast in Olympic history. Two more medals would place her second behind Larisa Latynina, who won 18 medals for the Soviet Union in the 1950s and ’60s.

Although surpassing Latynina seems improbable, Biles, considered the “Greatest of All Time,” finds greater value in silencing her critics. Those who doubted her after Tokyo are now silent, awed by her third gold medal win in Paris. “They’re really quiet now,” she remarked with a touch of sarcasm.