Thread by @washingtonpost

Four decades ago, Russian gymnastics coach Vladislav Rastorotsky had an idea.

Gymnasts always had jumped toward the vault facing forward. But what if they tried a round-off onto the springboard and a back handspring onto a vault they couldn’t see? wapo.st/3w2nkB8

The idea seemed inconceivable. But Natalia Yurchenko debuted the vault in a competition in 1982, and the entry has carried her name since.

Then Simone Biles became the first female gymnast to perform a double-flipping Yurchenko two weeks ago. wapo.st/3fXKQtq

At gymnastics’ highest levels, Yurchenko vaults are as prevalent as fastballs in baseball, but until Biles soared off the table and completed two flips rather than one, the term had never truly pierced the world outside gymnastics. wapo.st/3w2nkB8

Assuming Biles successfully performs the Yurchenko double pike at the Olympics, it will become the fifth skill named for her. But it will also remain part of the Yurchenko family of vaults. wapo.st/3w2nkB8

Biles performing this vault in competition, seemingly with ease, doesn’t change how remarkably difficult it is.

Here’s more on the origins of her revolutionary vault: wapo.st/3w2nkB8