2024-08-04 02:30:02
Women’s Vault Final
Simone Biles is golden once again. After pulling out of the vault final at the 2020 Tokyo Games, Biles is back on top of the medal podium — now a two-time Olympic champion on vault (she first won in 2016) and a seven-time Olympic gold medalist.
Unable to contend with Biles’ level of difficulty, defending Olympic champion Rebeca Andrade finished second. The freshly minted two-time Olympic gold medalist Jade Carey, finished third to add a third Olympic medal to her haul.
Biles competed in the first group of athletes, vaulting an explosive Yurchenko double pike (15.700) and Cheng (14.900), for an average of 15.300.
Andrade soared on her Cheng to outscore Biles’ Cheng with a 15.100. She busted out an Amanar for her second vault (14.833) to lock in the silver (14.966 average).
Carey was on a bit of a mission — perhaps her own personal “Redemption Tour” — after an uncharacteristic mistake forced her to the bottom of the standings in Tokyo. Carey performed two of the best vaults of her career (14.733 for her Cheng and 14.466 for her Yurchenko double twist) with just a small hop on the landing. Carey’s average of 14.466 secured the bronze.
“This feels like redemption,” Carey said. “I really wanted to do better (than Tokyo 2020), especially on vault. I’m just proud of the work I put in and am really proud of what I did here today. This (the medal) feels really, really good.”
