2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games

Preview: Rio 2016 Women's Vault Final

Preview: Rio 2016 Women's Vault Final

The Women's Gymnastics Vault Final will take place on Sunday at 1:00pm EST, along with the Uneven Bars Final and the Men's Floor and Pommel Horse Final. Eig

Aug 13, 2016 by Justine Kelly
Preview: Rio 2016 Women's Vault Final
The Women's Gymnastics Vault Final will take place on Sunday at 1:00pm EST, along with the Uneven Bars Final and the Men's Floor and Pommel Horse Final. Eight gymnasts will be competing for the gold, silver and bronze medals.

The field this year is very deep, and several gymnasts will be competing who already have Olympic and World medals on the event. Simone Biles comes in as the No. 1 qualifier and is the reigning World bronze medalist. She also has two World silver medals on vault from 2013 and 2014. Hong Un Jong from North Korea qualified just behind Biles. Hong is an accomplished gymnast on vault, having already won an Olympic gold medal in 2008, in addition to a World silver medal in 2015, World gold medal in 2014, and World bronze medal in 2013.

Switzerland's Giulia Steingruber qualified in third place and is the reigning European Champion on the event. In addition to her gold medal from Bern this year, she also has a silver medal from 2015 Europeans, a gold medal from 2014 and 2013 Europeans, and a bronze from 2012 Europeans. Maria Paseka from Russia qualified behind Steingruber and is another European star in the mix. Paseka is the reigning World Champion on vault, having won the gold medal in Glasgow last year. Earlier that year, she has also won the gold at European Championships.

Legend Oksana Chusovitina, representing Uzbekistan, qualified into 5th place. As the most experienced gymnast in the field, Chusovitina comes to the competition with an Olympic vault silver medal from 2008, and a whopping nine World vault medals (four bronze from 1992, 1993, 2002 and 2006, four silver from 1991, 2001, 2005, and 2011, and one gold from 2003). To top it off, she has four vault medals from the European Championships when she represented Germany, and three vault medals from the Asian Games when she represented Uzbekistan.

Coming in behind Chusovitina is Canada's reigning Vault Champion, Shallon Olsen, China's Wang Yan, and the sole competitor from India, Dipa Karmakar.

In addition to it being a deep field, this year's vault final will be particularly interesting because of the tough vaults that will likely be unveiled. Karmakar is one of those gymnasts who has been competing the Produnova vault, worth 7.0 in start value. Chusovitina may unveil this vault as well at finals - she chose to play it safe during qualifications. The other question mark is on Hong, who has been seen training a triple twisting Yurchenko. If she performs it, she'll be the first to do so at a major international competition and will have it named for her. It will also rocket her total D-score to way above the rest of the field.

To provide further clarity on how the gymnasts stack up against each other, we have provided some analysis of their difficulty and execution below, based on their scores from qualification:

Highest Total Difficulty:
1. Dipa Karmakar (India): 7.0 + 6.0 = 13.0
2. (T) Simone Biles (USA): 6.3 + 6.4 = 12.7
2. (T) Hong Un Jong (PRK): 6.3 + 6.4 = 12.7
2. (T) Maria Paseka (RUS): 6.3 + 6.4 = 12.7
3. (T) Oksana Chusovitina (UZB): 6.2 + 6.0 = 12.2
3. (T) Shallon Olsen (CAN): 6.3 + 5.9 = 12.2
3. (T) Wang Yan (CHN): 6.0 + 6.2 = 12.2
4. Giulia Steingruber (SUI): 6.2 + 5.8 = 12.0

Highest Average Execution (both vaults):
1. Simone Biles (USA): 9.7
2. Hong Un Jong (PRK): 9.333
3. Giulia Steingruber (SUI): 9.2665
4. (T) Oksana Chusovitina (UZB): 8.8995
4. (T) Wang Yan (CHN): 8.8995
5. Shallon Olsen (CAN): 8.85
6. Maria Paseka (RUS): 8.8495
7. Dipa Karmakar (IND): 8.35


Related:
Women's Finals Qualifiers