In qualifications, Simone Biles became the first woman since 1992 to qualify for all six possible Olympic event finals.
The athletic world is only a few years away from crowning Simone Biles as the GOAT Gymnast. In a league of her own, she stands as one of the most decorated US athletes. But even after spending her whole life in the field, Biles is left surprised by the complexity of gymnastics. The 27-year-old recently shared her amusement over the size of the gym apparatus in an Instagram story.
On one hand, gymnastics is a scary sport. The artistic moves athletes perform look scary to the naked eye. Wouldn’t it be even harder to master those moves? But how hard would it be if one has to compete on surfaces thinner than an iPhone?
Simone Biles left awestruck
In her latest Instagram story, Simone Biles shared the scary details of the new analogy of the balance beam. Adding multiple shock-expressing emojis, she reposted a post from Planet Of Gymnastics which read, “New analogy the beam is thinner than the length of an iPhone“. The width of the balance beam is 10 centimeters or 4 inches while the length of an iPhone is more than that by several inches.
Balancing on the 4-inch surface is a huge task in itself. But performing flips, jumps and dances and then landing perfectly on the same thin surface is astounding. It surely is a tough task, but the gymnastics queen is tougher. She has won over 25 medals on the beam, racking up a flawless routine after routine. Given the complexity involved in a single routine, Biles undoubtedly deserves more respect as other gymnastics apparatus is even thinner and scarier.
Scary gymnastics apparatus
Although hands are employed on the uneven bars, it still is one of the hardest routines in gymnastics. The diameter of the bar is a little more than 2 inches, while the height of the lower bar from the floor is 5 feet, 5 inches. A single mini-second lapse while athletes make continuous swinging movements on the bars can be fatal. Living that fear, conquering that, and then winning in front of a sea of people is truly astonishing.
But even scarier is horizontal bars. Made up of stainless steel, the diameter of the bar is a little over 1 inch. Gymnasts perform swinging movements without interruption above the height of 9 feet, 2 inches, and have to release the bar as well to show the flight phase. While the width of the Pommel Horse is 12 centimeters, it’s nonetheless as scary as other routines with uninterrupted circular movements.
