Simone Biles has once again stunned her fans with her gravity-defying feats after sharing a video of herself performing a complicated tumbling pass that she hasn’t done in 10 years.
The 23-year-old Olympic gymnast returned to training back in May after her gym was closed for several months amid the coronavirus pandemic, but it looks like she hasn’t missed a beat. She took to Twitter on Tuesday to share behind-the-scenes footage of herself doing a double layout followed by a double tuck.
‘Haven’t done a double tuck since I was probably 13 — here you go,’ she captioned the five-second clip, but she failed to mention she was doing the double tuck out of a double layout — a far more difficult maneuver.
She’s the best! Olympic gymnast Simone Biles shared a behind-the-scenes video of herself doing a double tuck out of a double layout, an extremely difficult tumbling pass
In the video, she can be seen doing a roundoff back handspring into a double layout, which requires the gymnast to rotate in a straight or slightly arched position two times around.
It’s already one of the most difficult skills a gymnast can master, but Biles makes the tumbling pass even more complicated by bouncing out of the double layout into a double backflip, which is essentially the same move but with the knees tucked into the body.
Biles was lightly spotted by a coach who was wearing a face mask when she completed the pass, and she had so much power when she landed, she fell backward and rolled onto her back.
The gold medalist’s fellow teammates can be heard cheering her on in the background of the video that appears to have been filmed at the World Champions Centre in Spring, Texas.
Geting started: In the five-second clip, she can be seen doing a roundoff back handspring into a double layout before springing into a double tuck
Crowd pleaser: Biles’ fellow teammates can be heard cheering her on in the background of the video that appears to have been filmed at the World Champions Centre in Spring, Texas
Biles, who is the most decorated gymnast in World Championship history, is coached by Laurent Landi at the gym, which is owned by her parents.
Her latest training video has been viewed more than 935,000 times and has received thousands of comments from astonished fans.
‘This is typically two different floor passes that she just combined into one,’ one person tweeted, and she wasn’t the only one to comment on the difficulty of the skill.
‘So, her first skill was a double layout, hardly anyone does something AFTER it unless it’s like a split jump or dance move. You don’t tumble OUT of a double lay,’ someone else explained.
‘To do ANY flip out of it is wild, but to do a double tuck (a skill many elites end routines w/ on its own) is BONKERS.’
Just so you know: When Biles posted the video on Twitter, she noted that she hasn’t done the move since she was 13 years old
Stunned: Fans noted Biles had combined two tumbling passes into one, and she also received praise from fellow gymnasts Nastia Liukin, Maggie Nichols, and Rachael DenHollander
Biles also received comments from fellow gymnasts who were just as impressed.
‘YOU ARE INSANE… in the best way possible,’ responded Olympic gold medalist Nastia Liukin.
Maggie Nichols, a former national team member and gymnast at the University of Oklahoma, agreed, tweeting: ‘This is the most insane thing I’ve ever seen.’
And gymnast turned lawyer Rachael Denhollander called Biles a role model for her children.
‘Just your daily reminder that @Simone_Biles is a complete super hero — partly because she can fly like one, and also because she uses the power of her voice to effect the greatest change,’ she wrote. ‘Rock on, and thanks for being an awesome role model for my own kids.’
Moving forward: Simone, pictured in Rio in 2016, is currently training for the Olympics next year, However, she admitted that she struggled with the impact of quarantine on her routine
Using her voice: Biles, pictured at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in 2019, has become one of the leading critics of USA Gymnastics’ handling of the Larry Nassar abuse scandal
Biles has become one of the leading critics of USA Gymnastics’ handling of the Larry Nassar abuse scandal after coming forward as one of the doctor’s many victims in January 2018 — just over one year after he was arrested on child pornography charges.
Nichols, her close friend, was the first gymnast to officially report Nassar’s sexual abuse to USA Gymnastics and was referred to as ‘Athlete A’ before she chose to waive her anonymity.
Denhollander, meanwhile, was the first person to publicly come forward against the doctor.
In a recent interview with Vogue, the cover star opened up about the time she spent privately struggling with the abuse she had faced at the hands of Nassar, admitting she initially refused to address the subject with her family.
In the end, she said it was Nichols who inspired her to come forward after she spent years believing that what she had experienced wasn’t actually abuse because it wasn’t as ‘bad’ as what some of his other victims had described.
Taking center stage: Biles posed for a stunning cover shoot for the August issue of Vogue, in which she opens up about racism and the Nassar abuse scandal
Taking a stand: Speaking about her decision to reveal she was a victim of the pedophile doctor, Biles said that she wanted other survivors ‘to feel comfortable in coming forward’
‘But I was reading Maggie’s coverage and it just hit me,’ she said. ‘I was like, I’ve had the same treatments. I remember Googling, like, “sexually abused.”
‘Because I know some girls had it worse than me. I know that for a fact. So I felt like I wasn’t abused, because it wasn’t to the same extent as the other girls. Some of my friends had it really, really bad. They were his favorite. Since mine wasn’t to that capacity, I felt like it didn’t happen.’
She added that she actually felt guilty about how the abuse might make people feel about her, explaining that she was concerned about somehow tarnishing the image of America’s sweetheart that she had taken on since winning the Olympics in 2016.
Sentenced: Nassar was sentenced to 175 years in jail in 2018 at a trial that had dozens of gymnasts sharing powerful victim-impact statements in front of the court
‘That’s how I felt — like I was letting other people down by this,’ Biles confessed.
However, the sporting superstar hoped that in sharing her own experiences, she might help other survivors to feel ‘comfortable and safe in coming forward,’ so she made the decision to share her story.
But even though Nassar is now behind bars, the scandal has continued to plague USA Gymnastics, which has come under increasing scrutiny over its handling of the pedophile doctor and its treatment of his victims.
Biles has been so horrified by the new information that has come forward about USAG’s attempts to actually conceal the abuse suffered by so many athletes that she admitted she wanted to pull out of contention for the next Olympics because she couldn’t bear the thought of spending another year working with the organization.
‘We were gripping at the bars, and I just started crying. Another year of dealing with USAG. That, I don’t know if I can take,’ Biles said of her reaction to the Olympics delay, while describing herself as being ‘torn and broken’ by the news.
The gymnast faced another serious roadblock in her journey to the next Games: the closure of her home gym, which shut down for several months amid the pandemic before reopening in May.
Inspiration: Biles said it was her friend and fellow survivor Maggie Nichols, pictured in 2015, who inspired her to come forward with her own story
Split: During her interview with Vogue, Biles also revealed that she broke up with boyfriend Stacey Ervin Jr. in early March, shortly before much of the country went into lockdown
The closure left Biles feeling adrift without her rigorous training schedule that has become a trusted emotional outlet for so many years.
‘…You go to work out and you release endorphins. You get any anger out. It’s kind of our oasis,’ she explained.
‘Without that, you’re stuck at home with your own thoughts. I’ve kind of let myself live in those thoughts, to read more deeply into them. At the gym, it’s a great distraction, so I never really live with my thoughts.’
In addition to dealing with the pandemic, and the huge impact that had on her training and her Olympic hopes, Biles was also dealing with the end of her first serious relationship with fellow gymnast Stacey Ervin Jr.
The couple split in early March after three years together, with Biles telling Vogue that while she struggled with the break-up, she knows that it was ‘for the best.’