Asomersault (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.
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]
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]
^Jones, Henrique; Martinez, José (2022). "Running in Tumbling". The Running Athlete: A Comprehensive Overview of Running in Different Sports. Springer. pp. 151–152. ISBN978-3-662-65064-6.