By Karen Braun PARIS (Reuters) – Simone Biles and Rebeca Andrade have already thrilled fans including Tom Cruise and Snoop Dogg with their high-flying performances at the Olympics, but the top gymnasts have yet to debut their unprecedented tricks in the Bercy Arena. Both athletes prior to the Games submitted original skills to the International […]
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Olympics-Gymnastics-Biles, Andrade keep Paris arena on new-skill watch
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By Karen Braun
PARIS (Reuters) – Simone Biles and Rebeca Andrade have already thrilled fans including Tom Cruise and Snoop Dogg with their high-flying performances at the Olympics, but the top gymnasts have yet to debut their unprecedented tricks in the Bercy Arena.
Both athletes prior to the Games submitted original skills to the International Gymnastics Federation that if landed successfully in Paris would bear their names in the code of points.
Thursday’s all-around final is U.S. star Biles’ last chance to attempt her asymmetric bar move, a clear hip circle forward with 1.5 turns to handstand, since she did not qualify for the apparatus final.
But the all-around final and Saturday’s vault final offer Brazil’s Andrade two more chances on her triple-twisting Yurchenko vault, consisting of a round-off, back-handspring onto the table with a triple-twisting stretched flip to finish.
Luckily for Andrade, she will know what she needs to do in the vault final to challenge Biles for gold as she will be the sixth of eight gymnasts to perform, two positions behind the American.
“(When) we are in the finals, then it’s better to see the scenario, and we must see what we need to get the medals,” Brazilian coach Francisco Porath Neto told reporters in Paris of the game-time strategy.
“The Yurchenko triple twist is a choice, but you must understand if it’s necessary or not.”
For 25-year-old Andrade, who led her team to a historic bronze on Tuesday, the Yurchenko triple twist may be necessary in the vault final if Biles hits her Yurchenko double pike, called the Biles II.
The upgrade would boost Andrade’s combined difficulty score to 11.6, a full point higher than in qualification and close to Biles’ 12.0, putting pressure on the American.
Biles, who earned a team gold and her eighth Olympic medal on Tuesday, already has five named skills in the code, but asymmetric bars is the only apparatus on which she does not have an eponymous skill.
Whether she throws the unique bar skill in the all-around final may ride on the results from vault, her first apparatus in the competition, and on the performance of challenger Andrade.
Should 27-year-old Biles unexpectedly fall on vault in the all-around final, she may need to take the risk on bars and attempt the dizzying move, which is worth 0.5 point in difficulty.
A fall is a 1-point deduction.
(Additional reporting by Rory Carroll; Editing by Christian Radnedge)