What Makes Simone Biles The GOAT, Scientifically

Short Wave

Another Olympics, another set of stellar performances by the U.S. women's artistic gymnastics team. Thursday, the team won two medals in the women's all-around final: a gold for Simone Biles and a bronze for Sunisa Lee. The medals add to the team's overall count, which also includes a gold for the women's team final. Simone and Suni are expected to lead the team to more medals in the coming days. Each day the gymnasts compete, we are left to pick our jaws off the floor and wonder: How do they do that? So we called up one of our favorite science communicators, Frederic Bertley, to explain just that. He's the CEO of the Center of Science and Industry and our gymnastics physics guide for the day.
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A previous version of this episode suggested that at the top of a gymnast's jump, they are moving with zero acceleration. In fact, there they have zero velocity, but still have the same acceleration. Also, gravity is constant as a person performs gymnastics tricks on Earth. A previous version of this episode also did not make clear that conservation of angular momentum happens as gymnasts move through the air in uneven bars — as opposed to when the gymnasts are on the bars themselves and the gymnasts are subject to additional forces.
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