PARIS (Reuters) – Brazil’s most-decorated gymnast Rebeca Andrade has officially launched a bid to get a skill named after her as she will be attempting to perform a risky new vault that has never been pulled off by a woman.
The International Gymnastics Federation on Thursday confirmed that Andrade has submitted the triple-twisting Yurchenko to be named after her in the code of points should she land it in competition at the Games.
This comes after video surfaced online earlier this month teasing Andrade’s possible plans for the gravity-defying vault.
The Yurchenko consists of a round-off, back-handspring entry onto the table, finishing with a triple-twisting flip in the stretched position.
Andrade, 25, may still be training this vault behind closed doors as she did not attempt it in podium training on Thursday evening. She declined to speak to the press after the session.
Should Andrade successfully execute the vault, which could happen as early as Sunday during the qualification round, it would bear her name and carry a 6.0 difficulty score.
That would be the second-most difficult vault in the women’s code after the 6.4-scored Biles II, a Yurchenko entry with a double flip in the piked position.
Simone Biles landed that vault nearly flawlessly during Thursday’s training, though she has previously struggled to control her power upon landing. That cost her gold at last year’s world championships, where she finished second to Andrade.
Both Naomi Visser and Lieke Wevers of the Netherlands have submitted a triple-turn on floor exercise with the leg in the horizontal position to hopefully be completed in Paris.
Two gymnasts had submitted the same triple-turn at last year’s world’s but they failed to perform it without error.
North Korea’s Hong Un-jong at the 2016 Games was the first woman to submit and attempt the triple Yurchenko but was unsuccessful.
(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
