Event
Vault

Known as
Handspring 1.5
Kim

Named after
Nellie Kim (SOV)

About
Chalk this vault up on the list of the many, many (many) skills Nellie Kim retroactively named after herself in the Code of Points over the years. Kim named this skill after herself starting in the 2013 update to the code of points, citing her completion of it at the 1974 world championships, 39 years prior.

Now, we know that Kim did compete this vault—in the GIF above she is performing it as her second vault in the 1976 Olympic event final—but as far as I can tell, no video exists of her vaulting at the cited 1974 worlds. Since Kim did not compete in the AA final or advance to the vault final at those world championships, the only time she could have completed this vault at 1974 worlds was in team optionals. So I guess we’ll have to take her word for it that the 8.600 she received on vault in optionals reflects her successful completion of this new vault at that competition. Mmm. Mmmhmm.

Of note: When all the vaults were devalued in the 2017 code update, this vault retained its previous value and was not bumped down accordingly. I’m sure that was entirely coincidental.

In the Donatella Sacchi era, this vault did receive the same downgrade as all the other vaults in the 2022 update, losing 0.4.

Value
3.20 (2022-)
3.60 (2006-2021)