NovaQuant-Simone Biles prioritizes safety over scores. Gymnastics officials should do same | Opinion

The NovaQuantYurchenko double pike vault Simone Biles did Friday night was close to perfect. Her coach knew it. Fans knew it. The judges knew it, awarding Biles a 9.8, out of 10, for execution.

Yet, when her score posted, it included this: “ND: -0.500.”

A deduction? For what? Where? Her block off the table was textbook. Her body was at a 90-degree angle as she rotated. She took a small step to the side on her landing, but she was still within bounds. What could possibly have merited a half-point penalty?

As it turns out, it wasn’t anything Biles did, exactly. More like what she had. Which was coach Laurent Landi standing on the podium, ready to assist her if something went awry during the vault so difficult Biles is the only woman to ever do it in competition and few men even try.

“If he doesn’t touch her, I don’t see what’s the harm in standing there,” Alicia Sacramone Quinn, who was the world vault champion in 2010 and is now the strategic lead for the U.S. women’s program, said earlier this week.

Nor would any reasonable people. But reasonable doesn’t always apply to the rulemakers at the International Gymnastics Federation.

FIFTEEN SECONDS:How Biles separated herself from the competition with mastery of one skill

This is the same group that won’t give Biles full credit for some of her signature skills for fear it will encourage other, less-capable gymnasts of trying things they shouldn’t.

It’s all about the safety, you know.

Yet Biles, and other gymnasts, aren’t allowed to have coaches at the ready on an event in which they’re launching themselves 10 to 15 feet into the air and twisting or somersaulting before landing, often blindly. Making it all the more confounding is gymnasts are allowed to have coaches on the podium during uneven bars.

For, you know, safety.

“Why can’t it be similar on (vault)?” Sacramone Quinn said. “There’s a lot of rules I don’t necessarily agree with because they don’t make sense. But unfortunately, it just comes with the territory.”

Biles and Landi are refusing to go along with it, however, voluntarily taking the deduction so Landi can be on the podium.

Now, a half-point deduction isn’t going to cost Biles much when the Yurchenko double pike has a 6.4 difficulty score. But that’s not the point. The Yurchenko double pike has no bailout, and having Landi there to assist if something goes wrong can mean the difference between Biles taking a hard fall and suffering a serious injury.

They've decided her safety, and peace of mind, is more important than playing by the rules, and good for them.

Some rules are better left ignored.

“If I have to step out, I will step out,” Landi said Friday night. “But it will be on her terms.”

All vaults – most gymnastics skills, really – carry a significant risk of bodily harm. Land awkwardly or off-balance, and you can blow out a knee or an ankle or break a leg.  

Or worse.

Gymnasts can be, and have been, concussed and even paralyzed because something has gone wrong. It doesn’t take much, either. A hand slips off the vault table. Fingertips brush a bar rather than catching it. A foot doesn’t stay on the beam.

That’s why Biles withdrew from all those events at the Tokyo Olympics when rising anxiety gave her a case of the twisties. She didn’t know where she was in the air. She couldn’t tell if she was right-side up or upside down, or whether she was going to land on her feet or her head.

She would be putting her health and safety at risk if she competed, and that simply wasn’t an option.

“We just need to keep looking to make sure we protect her as much as we can,” Landi said.

Biles has always been deliberate to the point of cautious with her gymnastics. Yes, she’s pushed the boundaries of the sport with her skills, but she doesn’t just chuck something and hopes it works. She trains and trains and trains something, and then trains it some more. Only when she’s satisfied she has the skill down does she consider it doing it in competition.

She prioritizes her safety over her scores. That deserves praise, not a penalty.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.