Photo : Laurence Griffiths ( Getty Images )

While your ass was busy complaining about how long this week feels even after having Monday off, gymnast Simone Biles (arguably the very best athlete on the planet right now) was out here being ... Simone Biles. By which we mean doing things that literally no other woman gymnast on the planet can do.




On Tuesday, Biles dropped two videos showcasing jaw-dropping additions to her floor routine. As Team USA notes, the first video she posted includes her signature move, “the Biles,” a double layout flip with a half twist. Except she went on and added a front layout somersault.


For perspective, “signature moves” in gymnastics aren’t like signature moves in real life (see: the same body roll I’ve been hitting since ’98). The Biles is named for Simone because she was the first—and thus far, only—woman to land the element in international competition.

And it is not the 22-year-old’s only signature move. She also boasts a vault move named for her, and from the likes of the second video she dropped on Tuesday, there may be a third “Biles” move coming.

Behold:


The second video shows Biles landing a move that requires not one, not two, but three twists—which then transitions into two flips. It’s an element that, once again, no other woman has ever landed in a major meet, and has only been done by a handful of male gymnasts.

That alone would be commendable, but watching the most decorated woman gymnast in world championships history, one thing vaults to the front of your mind. It’s the thing that’s most maddening about every exceptional, standard-bearing and standard-breaking athlete: S he makes it look so effortless.


Meanwhile, the rest of us need CGI to pull that shit off.

Olympic Channel notes that most U.S. gymnasts tend to keep new elements on lock, waiting until competitions to unveil their new moves, in part so that officials, competitors, and judges don’t carry lofty expectations of what their routines will look like before the gymnast ever hits the mat.


So Biles’ video drops are rare, and one can assume, strategic. Her moves sure look competition-ready, though we’ll find out once and for all what Biles has up her bedazzled sleeves come July when she competes at the U.S. Classic in Kentucky.