Simone Biles Pulls Off Historic Vault at World Championships — See the Video!

Simone Biles landed on the world stage for the first time from one of the hardest jumps in the world.

On Sunday at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, the 26-year-old gymnast successfully landed the Yurchenko double jump, weeks after landing at the US nationals.

In landing gear, the vault – which has a rounded entrance and a rear handspring on the device followed by two reversals – is now known as “Biles II”.

At the world championships in Antwerp, Belgium, he is rated with a difficulty rating of 6.4, according to NBC Sports. Last year at the competition, the most demanding jump received a rating of 5.6, per drop.

Simone Biles says she wondered if she would ‘ever be able to compete again’

Simone Biles unloads Biles II

For Biles, the vault has been in her arsenal since 2021, but she has never performed it in international competition before, writes NBC Sports.

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Ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the seven-time Olympic medalist was hoping to jump. But in the months leading up to the competition, she scrapped the routine, citing the “risk versus reward factor.”

Simone Biles.

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

“In gymnastics, almost everything has been done, so when you push the boundaries there is a risk factor — risk versus reward,” she told PEOPLE at the time. “Gymnastics can be a dangerous sport, so you have to be smart. I’m glad I have great coaches who guide me, help me be creative and push those boundaries.”

Months later, Biles sat out four of the five event finals in Japan to recover from “twisties” — a disorienting condition athletes can experience when they lose their awareness of the air, putting them at risk of injury when they land.

How to watch Simone Biles and other athletes compete at the 2023 World Gymnastics Championships.

In August, Biles told PEOPLE that during the past two years away from international competition, she made sure to work on the “personal side” of her preparation — even as the twists and turns still forced her to take a break.

“I think I’ve always had a competitive drive, so I don’t think taking time off taught me a lot about my competitive side,” Biles told PEOPLE in August. “I think it was more about the personal side and having to really take care of myself mentally and physically and make sure everything is in line so that whenever I compete, everything goes well.”

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Source: HIS Education