Gymnastics is an extremely difficult sport, but some people make it look easy. Step forward Simone Biles, who hit a Yurchenko double pike'considered the 'hardest vault in the world''during the artistic gymnastics Women's Team event at the 2024 Summer Olympics. With both the Women's Vault and Women's All-Around events still to come, it's possible we'll get to see Biles complete the feat again before the Games are out. There will be some version of a flip in all four of the women's gymnastics events: floor, bars, vault, and beam. It's one of the two types of rotations a gymnast can make midair. In physics terms, a flip is a head-to-foot rotation about an imaginary axis that runs through the gymnast's hips. For the second type of rotation, a twist, imagine an axis that runs from their head to their feet. A gymnast can actually perform both of these types of rotation at the same time'that's what makes the sport so interesting to watch. In physics, we would call this type of movement a...
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