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A somersault (also flip, heli, and in gymnastics salto) is an acrobatic exercise in which a person's body rotates 360° around a horizontal axis with the feet passing over the head. [1] A somersault can be performed forwards, backwards or sideways and can be executed in the air or on the ground. When performed on the ground, it is typically called a roll.
Somersault may be performed with different positions, including tucked, piked (bent at the hips), straddled, and layout (straight body). [2]
The sport of tumbling does not require participants to combine both front and back elements, and most tumblers prefer back tumbling as it is easier to build momentum. [3]
Arabian saltos begin backwards, continue with a half twist to forwards, and end with one or more saltos forwards. They can be trained by beginning with an Arabian dive roll and adding a front salto to it. [4] They are counted as front tumbling in women's artistic gymnastics [5] and back tumbling in men's artistic gymnastics. [6]
Somersaults are often completed with twists. [7]
By 2003, the tucked double back salto had become common in women's gymnastics. [7] The triple back salto exists in men's gymnastics but was rarely competed until 2017. [8]
In 2019, American gymnast Simone Biles was the first woman to compete a back triple double: two saltos backwards with three twists in a tucked position. [9] [10]