‘Rest in peace’: Simone Biles lays signature Yurchenko double pike move to rest

Simone Biles is putting one of her iconic skills to rest.

Biles, who is the most decorated gymnast of all time with 11 Olympic and 30 world championship medals, held a farewell ceremony for one of her signature moves — the Yurchenko double pike.

Biles became the first female gymnast to complete the move in a competition. She landed the vault, now known as the “Biles II” in her 2021 return at the GK U.S. Classic in Indianapolis after not competing for over a year and a half.

The first woman in history to land a Yurchenko double pike in competition.

Our jaws are on the floor. @Simone_Biles is still in the air. #USClassic pic.twitter.com/CmJYRidtfo

— Team USA (@TeamUSA) May 23, 2021

There, Biles defended her GK U.S. Classic all-around title with a score of 58.400.

Biles took the move to the artistic gymnastics world championship in Belgium in 2023, becoming the first woman to successfully perform it internationally.

The move is so complex and challenging that it was assigned a difficulty of 6.4 points — four-tenths more than any other vault.

After she landed the Yurchenko double pike at the world championship, the move was added to Biles’ repertoire as her second vault and the fifth skill named after her.

Most recently, Biles won Olympic gold using the vault at the Paris Games and said after the event finals that she was not going to do it again in competition.