Team USA's Simone Biles wins Olympic gold on vault, Jade Carey takes bronze

The women's vault final runs differently than the vaulting portions of the team and individual all-arounds. Instead of vaulting once and hoping for the best, each woman competes two different vaults in quick succession. The scores are then averaged, and the highest average earns the gold medal.

Eight women qualified for the vault final: Bulgaria's Valentina Georgieva, North Korea's An Chang-ok, Canada's Shallon Olsen and Ellie Black, South Korea's Yeo Seojeong, Brazil's Andrade and Team USA's Carey and Biles.

There were some surprises in the opening vaults. North Korea's Chang-ok executed a perfectly stuck Yurchenko double-twist in her opening vault of the night, amping up the pressure on the gymnasts to come.

But there was no competing with Biles. Her Yurchenko double-pike — the most difficult vault in the world — earned her a stunning 15.700 in her first vaulting pass.

What made Biles untouchable in this event? Sheer difficulty. Her second — and easiest — vault was everyone else's hardest. She executed a near-perfect Cheng in her final pass, earning a 14.900 and averaging her score into an unbeatable 15.300.

Brazil's Andrade gave Biles serious competition. She outscored Simone on the Cheng, earning a 15.100 to Biles's 14.900, but wasn't able to match Biles' difficulty in the second vault. 

Biles and Andrade are the clear top two in women's gymnastics, and Biles herself has nothing but respect for Andrade's skill. 

"She's way too close," Biles said of Andrade with a laugh after the all-around final on Thursday, per Reuters. "I've never had an athlete that close, so it definitely put me on my toes, and it brought up the best athlete in myself."

Carey stuck two gorgeous vaults to earn bronze. It was redemption for her rough vault performance in the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, where a botched takeoff dashed her chances of a medal.

Carey's Olympics are now over, but Biles has two more events ahead of her. She'll compete in the beam final and the floor final on Monday, Aug. 5 and is projected to medal in both.