The vault is one of the core events in artistic gymnastics where an athlete sprints down a runway, launches off a springboard, pushes off a padded table with their hands, and performs acrobatic flips or twists before landing. The entire sequence takes only a few seconds, making it one of the fastest and most explosive events in the sport. It appears in both men’s and women’s competitions and is often the event that produces the most dramatic, high-flying moments in gymnastics.
How the Vault Works
Every vault follows the same basic sequence: run, hurdle, block, fly, land. The gymnast begins with a full sprint down a runway that stretches 25 meters. At the end of the runway, they hit a springboard that converts their horizontal speed into upward momentum. From the springboard, the gymnast makes contact with the vaulting table using their hands, pushing off it in a motion called repulsion. This hand contact is brief but critical. Proper repulsion off the table is what generates the height and distance needed to complete flips and twists in the air before landing.
The landing is the final piece. Gymnasts aim to “stick” their landing, meaning they plant both feet on the mat without taking any steps. Hops, steps, or stumbles all result in deductions from judges.
The Vaulting Table
Gymnastics used to use a narrow, cylindrical apparatus called a vaulting horse. After several high-profile injuries, the sport transitioned to the modern vaulting table in the early 2000s. The table has a broad, slightly curved surface that gives gymnasts a larger and more forgiving area to push off from.
For men’s competitions, the table is 120 cm long and 95 cm wide, set at a height of 135 cm from the floor. Women use the same table design but set slightly lower, at 125 cm. The surface is lightly padded and has a slight upward slope toward the far end, which helps direct the gymnast’s energy upward during repulsion.
The Three Main Vault Families
While there are dozens of individual vaults in the sport’s scoring system, nearly all of them fall into three major categories based on how the gymnast approaches and contacts the table. Each family has a distinct entry style that shapes the entire vault.
Handspring Vaults
This is the most straightforward family. The gymnast runs forward, hits the springboard facing the table, and places both hands directly on the table while their body passes over in a handspring motion. From that position, they push off and perform flips or twists in a forward direction. A front handspring is typically the first vault a gymnast learns, and adding rotations to it creates increasingly difficult variations.
Tsukahara Vaults
Named after Japanese gymnast Mitsuo Tsukahara, this family adds a quarter or half turn onto the table. The gymnast approaches the springboard facing forward but twists during the flight onto the table so that their hands contact the surface while their body is partially turned. This means they leave the table traveling backward, opening up a different set of flips and twists in the post-flight phase. It requires strong spatial awareness because the gymnast changes orientation mid-vault.
Yurchenko Vaults
The Yurchenko is the most common vault family in elite women’s gymnastics today. Instead of jumping straight onto the springboard, the gymnast performs a round-off (a cartwheel-like move that lands on both feet) onto the board, then does a back handspring onto the table. This means their back is facing the table when their hands make contact. The round-off entry generates enormous rotational energy, which is why Yurchenko vaults tend to produce the biggest flips and twists in competition. The tradeoff is complexity: the gymnast is essentially blind to the table during the approach, relying entirely on timing and muscle memory.
How Vaults Are Scored
Vault scoring has two components. The first is a difficulty value, which is predetermined based on which vault the gymnast chooses to perform. More flips and twists mean a higher difficulty score. The second component is execution, where judges start from 10.0 and deduct for errors like bent knees, insufficient height, poor body position in the air, or steps on the landing. The two scores are added together for a final total.
In competition finals for vault, gymnasts perform two different vaults from two different families. This prevents athletes from simply repeating their best vault and rewards versatility. The two scores are averaged for the final result.
What Makes a Great Vault
Three things separate a good vault from a great one: speed on the runway, height off the table, and distance from the table before landing. Elite gymnasts reach the springboard at near-sprinting speed, which is why many top vaulters are among the most athletic gymnasts in the field rather than the most flexible. The run generates the raw power that everything else depends on.
Height matters because it gives the gymnast more time in the air to complete rotations cleanly. Gymnasts who barely clear the table often look rushed and land with visible compensations. Distance from the table is equally important. A vault that travels far from the table demonstrates strong repulsion and looks more controlled. Landing too close to the table suggests the gymnast didn’t push off effectively, and it can also be dangerous.
Body position in the air falls into three categories: tucked (knees pulled to the chest), piked (legs straight with the body folded at the hips), and stretched or laid out (body fully extended). A stretched position is the hardest to control during flips, so performing a vault in a layout position earns a higher difficulty score than the same vault in a tuck.
Why Vault Stands Out From Other Events
Unlike floor exercise or balance beam, where routines last 70 to 90 seconds, a vault is over in roughly five seconds from the moment the gymnast leaves the springboard. There’s no time to recover from a mistake or build momentum through the routine. Every element has to be right on the first attempt. This all-or-nothing quality is what makes vault one of the most exciting events to watch, and one of the most nerve-wracking to compete.
It’s also the only event where the gymnast gets essentially one shot at a single skill rather than stringing together a sequence of skills. That compression of effort into a few explosive seconds is what defines vault and sets it apart from everything else in gymnastics.