Simone Biles Casually Does a Heart-Stopping Move That Looks Exactly Like Flying
Simone Biles just did a gymnastics pass so powerful that at the end, she fell over. In a mesmerizing five-second clip that she posted to Twitter on Tuesday morning, she performs a double tuck out of a double layout. In nongymnastic terms, she basically flies down a runway, occasionally vaulting off the ground, using its resistance to flip even higher into the air.
The joyful clip comes just weeks after she was filmed performing a triple-double dismount, a move that has never been done before.
She’s the most decorated gymnast in US history, and I say this in the most loving and reverential way possible: She looks like a slinky going down a set of stairs. “Haven’t done a double tuck since I was probably 13—here you go,” she captioned the impossibly impressive video, failing to mention, as Twitter commenters pointed out, that she’s actually adding a double layout to the move, which makes it even more difficult.
Watch the video with sound—the cheers and gasps of her teammates, the crack! of her feet hitting the runway, and the audio of the shocked spotter jumping out of her way are worth putting on your headphones for.
It’s impossible to watch Simone Biles fly and not feel that little “oh!” of wonder—the kind that’s usually produced by an unbelievable moment in nature or a spectacular poem. She makes human potential feel vaster and more untapped than you realized. In the last split second of the video, when she goes crashing to the ground, it feels as though even she is surprised by her own strength.
The ability to fly is a superpower that humans literally dream of. If anyone is going to come close, we’re glad it’s Simone.
Jenny Singer is a staff writer for Glamour. You can follow her on Twitter.
Originally Appeared on Glamour
