Her muscles rival Jordyn Wieber's and her Amanar is up there with McKayla Maroney's. Who is she? She's Texan Simone Biles of Bannon's Gymnastix, who joined The Amanar Club in style this past weekend, vaulting a beautiful Yurchenko 2.5 at the Alamo Classic in San Antonio.
It's a stunning piece of gymnastics, especially since it was done without the aid of a podium, which tends to give a gymnast a bit more bounce and height. The lift she gets off the table is absolutely incredible, in a class with that of World vault champion Maroney.
Biles, who gained some fame on the gymternet a few years ago when Gymnastike filmed her trying with a double twisting double layout into a pit, was born in 1997 and therefore is not age-eligible to compete at the 2012 Olympics. But she'll be around for 2016 -- and by the looks of things, she's already a frontrunner.
Her incredible tumbling ability serves her well on floor (that double layout!) on beam (the lift on that double pike dismount!) and on vault. But in watching her videos from the Alamo I was most impressed with her much improved uneven bars, in spite of a struggle on low bar during her routine.
Note the spirit in that struggle -- many gymnasts would have jumped off, rechalked, caught their breath, remounted and done a simple transition to high, but not Biles. That determination is a quality as valuable as all that springiness.
Related: First-year senior Mykayla Skinner of Desert Lights in Arizona did the same vault sans podium almost exactly a year ago. Biles, Skinner, Aliya Mustafina, Viktoria Komova and Japan's Seira Suzuki are the only gymnasts I can think of who have landed an Amanar without the help of a podium.
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