Within the final 13 months Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade has emerged as a breakout star and has been probably the most profitable athletes in ladies’s creative gymnastics (WAG) in that point. Amongst Rebeca’s many accomplishments have been the 2 gold medals she gained on vault. The primary got here on the 2021 Olympics whereas the second occurred on the World Championships later within the yr.
For Andrade, she presently holds the 2 main vault titles in WAG concurrently whereas additionally having the ability to name herself a repeat winner on this occasion. However when Rebeca gained her second gold medal on vault she didn’t a lot as enterprise into uncharted territory, however fulfilled a prophecy that nearly all the time appears to come back true for current vault champions. That being, when a gymnast wins her first profession gold medal on vault, she is going to in all probability win a second gold medal on that exact same occasion within the not so distant future.
This development is so frequent that you must go all the way in which again to Sandra Izbasa on the 2012 Olympics to seek out an instance of a gymnast who completed her profession with solely a single gold medal on vault. Each different gymnast in that time-frame has both gained a number of gold medals on vault, or by no means had the dignity of ending in first place.
That is in no way one thing that’s solely a current phenomenon. Of all of the gold medals ever awarded on vault on the Olympics and World Championships from 1952-present, 62% of them went to gymnasts who gained no less than two gold medals on that equipment over the course of her profession. However essentially the most jaw-dropping facet of this statistic is that from 1985-present that determine rises to a staggering 74%.
In practically 4 many years of WAG historical past, nearly 3 out of each 4 vault medals have gone to a gymnast who both has completed or will end her profession with a number of vault titles. Cheng Fei, Hong Un-Jong, McKayla Maroney, Maria Paseka, Simone Biles, and Rebeca Andrade are merely the current examples of development that has outlined this equipment.
That 74% determine from 1985-present is such an outlier that on all different particular person occasions (all-around, bars, beam & flooring) the determine stands at simply 43% on this similar time interval.
The development of “win vault no less than twice or in no way” first appeared from 1956-1968 when Larissa Latynina and Vera Caslavska mixed to win all however one of many accessible gold medals on vault on this period. Margarita Nikolaeva successful the gold medal on vault on the 1960 Olympics was the lone exception.
Then the development all however fully disappeared from 1970-1984 with Nellie Kim being the one repeat winner to emerge on this period. However when Elena Shushunova gained back-to-back vault titles on the World Championships in 1985 and 1987* the development was right here to remain.
*There was no World Championships in 1986
It’s notably fascinating that the development took off beginning in 1985. It was at this actual cut-off date that Yurchenko-style vaults witnessed an explosion in reputation. It was in 1984 that an 11-year previous Elena Gurova grew to become the primary gymnast to carry out a Double-Twisting Yurchenko (DTY) vault in a televised competitors. The DTY would go on to develop into probably the most critically vital expertise on vault and main vaulters would undertake the talent en masse. Even to at the present time the talent stays frequent in high-level competitors.
One other fascinating facet of this development is readers might recall that previously I wrote that vault is impacted by an uncommon development the place dominance on this explicit occasion correlates with a gymnast being much less prone to win gold on the Olympics. Elena Shushunova (1985-1988), Cheng Fei (2005-2008), and McKayla Maroney (2011-2012) are three main examples the place a gymnast experiencing a “scorching streak” on vault was unable to hold that scorching streak into Olympic Vault Finals.
Extra gymnasts have gained a number of gold medals on vault than some other equipment. Vault additionally has the very best variety of 2x gold medalists on the World Championships, however this similar occasion is tied with beam for having the bottom variety of 2x gold medalists on the Olympics. Vault has a 5:1 ratio between 2x gold medalists occurring on the World Championships and 2x gold medalists occurring on the Olympics. For comparability the ratio is 1:1 on bars, 2:1 on beam, and 4:3 on flooring.
Vault is an odd equipment with reference to historic traits. On one hand there’s a development the place gymnasts are much more prone to win a number of instances versus solely successful as soon as. Then again, there’s a development the place gymnasts who win on vault with an excessive amount of frequency are vulnerable to an Olympic upset. These traits appear nearly contradictory, however there could also be a proof to this insanity.
In contrast to bars, beam, and flooring, the vault is WAG’s solely occasion the place gymnasts don’t compete one single routine. As a substitute gymnasts are tasked with making two distinct makes an attempt on the equipment with an extended pause in between their makes an attempt. Vault can be the one equipment the place a gymnast performs one talent at a time, and two expertise in complete. This versus the opposite three occasions the place gymnasts are tasked with performing a number of expertise, in a particular order, over the course of a routine starting from 30-seconds to 90-seconds in time.
These variations are the more than likely offender for vault being vulnerable to not one, however two uncommon traits.
