With Simone Biles breezing her way to just about every gold medal up for grabs in gymnastics, her competitors had to up the ante.
Biles was victorious in the women’s individual vault on Sunday, claiming her third gold in as many events at Rio with two left to go.
Although she comfortably won the event, two of her competitors were forced to try an incredibly dangerous move known as the “the Produnova” in order to impress the judges. The move is more commonly referred to as “the vault of death” and involves a front handspring off the vaulting horse into two front somersaults.
The move is so dangerous that when asked by the New Yorker if she would ever consider trying the skill, she responded, “I’m not trying to die”.
41-year-old Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan, who is competing in her seventh Olympic Games, failed on her attempt and rolled through her landing Jason Bourne-style .
However, Dipa Karmakar of India had a little more success as you can see in the video embedded below.
https://twitter.com/sandeep_naredla/status/764901147274457088
It was a momentous feat for the Indian gymnast, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to see her place in the event. She finished just outside the medal positions in fourth place.
