Some elite athletes make history by winning medals or breaking records. Gymnasts can etch their names in the books by doing that, sure, but they also have another option: Create a new skill, land it successfully, and it just might officially carry your name…forever.
Over the years, several daring gymnasts have permanently attached their names to a specific skill. It’s probably not surprising that Olympic champion Simone Biles is one of them. She’s actually got five elements named after her—two on vault, two on floor, and one on beam—the latest of which actually just got recognized this last fall. (In case you’re curious: The Biles II is a vault where you backflip off the platform and complete two full rotations in a pike position before landing). Other American stars, like Betty Okino, Nastia Liukin, and Carly Patterson all have namesakes, too.
And it’s possible we might see another one in Paris for Team USA. On July 26, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) announced that Biles submitted the paperwork for a new skill that just might make its way into competition.
Biles’s new element would be her first on the uneven bars: It’s a Weiler-kip with a one-and-a-half (540-degree) turn, a variation of which she already performs in competition. If she’s able to perform it successfully, she’ll be the only female gymnast to currently have a skill named after her in all four events, according to Olympics.com.
According to the International Gymnastics Federation’s (FIG) Code of Points, in order for a skill to carry a gymnast’s name, the move has to be performed successfully—“without a major fault” for the first time internationally, like at a World Championships, an Olympic Games, or a Youth Olympic Games. The skill must be performed for difficulty value and meet a certain level of difficulty (at least a C value or higher, on a scale that ranges from A to J). And the difficulty value and name must be confirmed following a technical committee analysis of the performance. The gymnast’s federation is responsible for submitting videos and drawings of the proposed new element to the FIG technical committee president right after the competition.
And if more than one gymnast at the same competition does the same new skill? Then it will be named after all the gymnasts. (Fun fact: If you have more than one element on the same apparatus, Roman numerals are added to your name.)
So far, Biles is one of four female gymnasts who have submitted paperwork for a new skill at the Olympics—her uneven bars move has been rated a difficulty value of E, making it worth 0.5 in difficulty. She joins Brazilian Rebeca Andrade (for vault) and Dutch gymnasts Lieke Wevers and Naomi Visser, who are both submitting the same move on floor.
Earlier this year, it seemed like another Team USA gymnast might try to etch her name in the books, too. In January, Suni Lee posted a sneak peak on her Instagram of an uneven bars skill—a release that features a front flip with a full twist before re-grasping the high bar—that had never before been done in elite competition. She officially rolled out her daring move, which USA Gymnastics rated as an “H” level of difficulty for domestic competition, at the Winter Cup competition in February.
Unfortunately, during competition, her hands slipped off the bar twice and she fell. She didn’t attempt it at the US Olympic trials in June, and she has yet to land it outside of training. And so far, she hasn’t submitted any paperwork to the FIG, so it doesn’t seem like she’ll be attempting the skill in Paris.
As for Biles, she didn’t try her new uneven bars skill during qualifications on July 28, but there’s still plenty more Olympics gymnastics to be had for 2024. So we’ll be tuning in for all of it to see which gymnast just might flip and twist their way into the Code of Points—and gymnastics vernacular forever.
SELF is your one-click source for all things Summer Olympics. Read our latest coverage of the Paris Games here.
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