Laurent Landi stood on the mat, arms slightly outstretched. He took one small step to his right. Then another.
Above him, above everyone really, Simone Biles soared through the air. Her arms clasped behind her knees. Her legs at a perfect 90° angle from her body.
Landi’s decision to stand there was one of his conditions if Biles wanted to attempt a Yurchenko double pike, a vault so daunting few men have attempted it and no woman has ever completed it in international competition.
Photo: AP
On Friday at the US Championships, all it did was give Landi, Biles’ longtime coach, a close-up view of an athlete who somehow at age 26 appears to be as good as ever. Maybe better.
Biles rotated perfectly and landed with a small hop. The arms Landi had extended just in case instead led a cheer that sent a jolt through the SAP Center.
Those two seconds of brilliance provided the signature moment during two hours that showcased that now, a full decade into her run atop her sport, there is Biles and then there is everyone else.
Photo: AFP
Her all-around total of 59.300 was well ahead of a brilliant Shilese Jones in second at 56.750 and put Biles in position to win a record eighth national championship today.
Biles’ total included a 15.7 for her showstopping vault, a score that included a near-perfect 9.8 for execution and a half-point neutral deduction for having Landi nearby.
Landi has no plans to ditch his post, although he could only shake his head when asked if a Yurchenko double pike is supposed to look that easy.
“No, it’s not normal,” he said. “She’s not normal.”
Wearing a bedazzled purple leotard and with her family in the stands rocking matching T-shirts that read “Still I Rise,” Biles put the disappointment of the Tokyo Olympics and her battles with the mental block known as “the twisties” further in her rearview mirror.
Three weeks after a dazzling comeback meet in Chicago, Biles looked just as crisp while chasing history.
There were mistakes here and there. She wobbled while mounting the balance beam and moments later nearly came off while trying to complete a wolf turn. Her peerless floor routine included a deduction for stepping out of bounds.
Otherwise, it was hard to tell if it was 2023 or 2013, when she claimed her first national title.
She was a 16-year-old prodigy then, still trying to harness her considerable talents.
Now she is a 20-something newlywed not yet ready to leave a sport she has redefined.
The comeback she was sort of iffy on until late spring only seems to be picking up speed. While she is hardly getting ahead of herself — she made it a point not to say the words “Olympics” or “Paris” after her victory in the US Classic — her performances are settling the issue.
The Yurchenko vault — a family of moves that was introduced by Russian gymnast Natalia Yurchenko, who retired in 1986, and her coach Vladislav Rastorotski — offered evidence. Biles toyed with it in 2021, but never had a chance to attempt it in Tokyo, which would have added the vault to the sport’s Code of Points with her name next to it. The one she completed on Friday might have been better than any she has done at her home gym in Houston, Texas.
“She’s one of the rare gymnasts that go to meet and does it even better under pressure,” Landi said. “If she’s very ready, at meets you’re going to see her explode.”
Additional reporting by staff writer
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