Your Guide to Olympic Gymnastics: Vault
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For two weeks every four years, women’s gymnastics is one of the biggest sports in the world. The rest of the time, those of us watching are kind of a niche group.
That can make it hard to fully appreciate what you’re seeing when the athletes take the Olympic stage. If you want to know what’s required on each apparatus, or what that skill you saw was, or how to distinguish good routines from great ones, we’re here to help.
Here, we’ll look at the vault, starting with a broad overview and then moving into the technical details. We also have guides to the uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise.
The basics
Gymnasts sprint down an 82-foot runway, use a springboard to propel themselves onto the vault (sometimes called the vaulting table or just the table), push themselves into the air and perform flips and twists before landing on the mat.
Many gymnasts, mainly those who don’t specialize in the event, complete only one vault. But those who want to qualify for the vault final must attempt two, and their methods must be from different “families.” (More on that later.)
Gymnasts receive one score for difficulty and one for execution, and the two are combined. A gymnast who performs a difficult vault with some flaws can outscore one who does an easier vault cleanly. And while landing errors may be the easiest to spot, what happens in midair is just as important: A gymnast who takes a step but has impeccable form can score more highly than one who sticks the landing but has sloppy form.
The reigning Olympic and world champion is Rebeca Andrade of Brazil. Here’s a video of her performing an immaculate Cheng vault at last year’s Pan American Games.
What the gymnasts do
Each vault has three segments: “preflight” (the movement from the springboard onto the table), “block” (the moment the hands touch and leave the table) and “postflight” (the flips and twists before landing).
Preflight
Vaults are categorized by entry, meaning how the gymnast approaches the vaulting table:
In a Yurchenko vault, she does a roundoff (basically a powerful cartwheel in which both feet land at once) onto the springboard, goes backward onto the table and flips backward. It’s the most common type of vault.
In a Yurchenko half-on vault, she does a roundoff onto the springboard, completes a half twist onto the table and flips forward.
In a handspring vault, she jumps on the springboard facing forward, goes forward onto the table and flips forward.
In a Tsukahara vault, she jumps on the springboard facing forward, performs a half twist onto the table and flips backward. It’s also called a Tsuk.
Block
Between the preflight and postflight is the block, a rapid motion in which the gymnast’s hands hit the vault and she pushes herself off, converting the horizontal momentum from her sprint down the runway into vertical momentum.
While it might seem like she should bend her elbows in order to spring up — the way you bend your knees in order to jump — a good block actually requires the gymnast to keep her arms straight and use her shoulder strength to launch into the air. A vault can be ruined if the gymnast is too low coming off the springboard and her elbows bend, or if she is too high and her hands don’t make firm contact with the table.
Postflight
Each preflight category contains an array of vaults, so saying a gymnast did a Yurchenko, for instance, doesn’t mean much without identifying the postflight. It’s almost always one flip — backward in Yurchenkos and Tsukaharas, forward in handsprings and Yurchenko half-ons — with anywhere from one to two and a half twists.
The most common vault is the double-twisting Yurchenko, or D.T.Y., which has a difficulty value of 5.0. But the best vaulters often perform an Amanar (a two-and-a-half-twisting Yurchenko, worth 5.4) or a Cheng (a one-and-a-half-twisting Yurchenko half-on, worth 5.6).
Handspring and Tsukahara vaults are less common than Yurchenko-style vaults, but some gymnasts specialize in them. Options include the double-twisting Tsukahara (5.2) and the one-and-a-half-twisting handspring (5.4), which is often called a “rudi,” a term from acrobatics.
Then there are two vaults that only Biles has shown herself capable of: the double-twisting Yurchenko half-on (6.0) and the Yurchenko double pike (6.4).
The Yurchenko double pike is one of two vaults in women’s gymnastics that involve two flips. The other is the handspring double front, or Produnova (6.0).
How they’re scored
Gymnasts receive a “D score” for difficulty and an “E score” for execution, which starts at 10 and decreases for errors. The two are combined, so, for example, an Amanar can score a maximum of 15.4.
Judges take deductions for insufficient height or distance from the vaulting table; messy form in the air; low chest position on the landing; finishing too far to the side; and steps, hops or falls. Individual deductions range from 0.1 — for, say, a small step — to 1.0 for a fall.
Because losing 0.1 here and there can add up quickly, even medal-winning vaults can receive an execution score in the low nines.
Gymnasts aiming to earn a medal in the vault finals perform two vaults, and the two scores are averaged.
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