Simone Biles wows with a routine that's simply stunning in slow motion
Simone Biles is back in competition, so it's been another great week for fans of sensational gymnastics routines.
The gold medal-winning Olympian is well on her way to participating in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics in July and August, with a superior performance on the first night of the U.S. Gymnastics Championships. She finished the night with the top score in three of the four events she competed in, including the one below (and her score is good enough for second place in the fourth event, bars).
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The commentators' response at the end there kinda says it all, right? "No words can describe the greatness," one says right as the video cuts off, with perfect timing. Biles tops the leaderboard for the floor event with a two-point lead over the next closest competitor — a huge margin, to be clear — and that's despite her stepping out of bounds three times during the above routine.
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But wait, it gets better. Journalist-turned-consultant Timothy Burke put together an extreme slow motion video of Biles' routine in action (with help from a neural network). As incredible as Biles' talents are to behold at normal speed, seeing the level of control she asserts over her own body play out in slow motion brings our understanding of her talents to new heights.
Just look at this two-minute clip featuring one of the impressive leaps from her top-scoring routine. Burke also linked out to a paper on the actual physics of how she pulls it all off.
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Truly impressive. And with the 2021 Olympics just a handful of weeks away (it kicks off on July 23), the best of what Biles plans to show the world is presumably yet to come.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
