When Simone Biles landed the Yurchenko double pike vault on Saturday night, she became the first woman to do so in competition. Few men have performed it.
The one other American is David Sender, a 35-year-old veterinarian in Auburn, Alabama. Sender, the 2008 U.S. all-around champion, does not follow the sport very closely anymore, but his interest piqued last week while chatting with his father.
“He heard that Simone was doing that vault, so he called to tell me and talk about older times, I guess,” Sender said Monday afternoon as he prepared for a hospital shift.