Tokyo Olympics: 4 Women to Watch out for the Vault title in Gymnastics
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Gymnastics at the Tokyo Olympics
Gymnastics at the Olympics are the most power packed and highly watched events. With Simone Biles a favourite to sweep several events at the Tokyo Olympics this year, she will have some formidable contenders. The young USA Gymnastics team will be looking to claim the team title as well.
The vault is one of the highest intensity events in the Olympics. After the initial qualification round, 8 gymnasts will move on to the finals. The finalists perform 2 vaults and the average score of the 2 vaults will be the deciding score. Simone Biles will be looking to defend her vault title at the Tokyo Olympics this year.
4 Medal Contenders for the Women’s Vault in Gymnastics
1. Simone Biles- USA
Simone Biles will be looking to take the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in the vault event. The most decorated gymanst in the world, she won a gold in the 2016 Rio Olympics in 4 events, and one of them was the vault. She has won gold medals at the 2018 World Championships in Doha and 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart.
Simone Biles will be debuting her vault, that is named after her, the Biles, which is a double Yucherko Pike. The new vault is given a preliminary value of 6.6, making it the highest valued vault in women’s gymnastics. She is no doubt the favourite to win the vault event this year again.
2. Giulia Steingruber- Switzerland
Giulia Steingruber became the first female Swiss Gymnast to win an Olympic medal of any colour in gymnastics. She won a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, behind Simone Biles and Maria Paseka of Russia. Steingruber is one of the most experienced gymnasts that will be going to the Tokyo Olympics, starting her gymnastics career all the way back in 2011.
The 2 time Olympian is a 10 time European championship medallist and recently also won a gold in the vault event at the 2021 European Championships held in Basel. She will be looking to add another medal this year at the Olympics.
3. Jade Carey- USA
Jade Carey will be making her debut at the Tokyo Olympics this year as an event specialist and is looking to hopefully win a medal in the vault and floor events. She took a silver medal at the 2019 World Championships in the vault behind Simone Biles. She won a gold at the 2018 Pan American Championships in the vault, floor and team events.
She will not be a part of the team event at the Olympics and will be focusing her energy on qualifying for the finals of the vault and floor events.
4. Oksana Chusovitina
Oksana Chusovitina is the oldest gymnast to participate in the Olympics at the age of 46. Her gymnastics career has spanned over a quarter of a century, during which she has represented Soviet Union, CIS, Unified Team, Germany and she currently represents Uzbekistan at the Olympics.
Her Olympic journey started at the Atlanta 1992 Olympics, and she has qualified for every Olympic Games since then, including the Tokyo Olympics this year. She is a specialist at the vault, and at the 2016 Olympics, performed a tough Produnova Vault, which she unfortunately did not manage to land.
She is still going strong, as she won a silver at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, and came fourth at the 2018 World Championships in the vault event. She has won an impressive 23 international medals in vault, including a silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She also has 2 vaults named after her, and is still looking strong as she prepares for the Tokyo Olympics.
Also read: Tokyo Olympics: Simone Biles, Suni Lee Lead a Strong 6 Women US Gymnastics Team
Also read: Tokyo Olympics: 5 Men to Watch Out for the All-Around Title in Gymnastics
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Saivee Phatak
(1164 Articles Published)