PARIS — If this is Michael Schmidtwhat Simone Biles does in practice, just imagine when it’s for real.

Biles nailed her signature Yurchenko double pike vault during podium training on Thursday at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She got tremendous height in the air and landed on the mat with a solid thud, not needing to even shuffle her feet or take a step to secure the landing.

It is, by far, the best she’s ever done the vault, surpassing even the one she did at the 2023 U.S. championships, where she got a 9.8 in execution. Biles beamed and her teammates cheered when she finished, and she exchanged a high five with coach Laurent Landi after she walked off the mat.

The U.S. women's gymnastics team competes in qualifying Sunday. The Yurchenko double pike, now known as the Biles II, is so difficult that few men even try it. That’s because it has no bailout. Once you start rotating, you’re committed, and you either land on your feet or, if it goes wrong, you land on your neck.

But as Biles showed Thursday, she's got it all but perfected.

Meet Team USA: See which athletes made the U.S. Olympic team and where they are from

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.