Julissa Gomez broke her neck while performing a Yurchenko vault in 1988 during the World Sports Fair in Japan, just before the 1988 Olympic trials. Eighteen months after her accident, Gomez, 16, is still in a coma. Because their backs are to the vault…
Gomez was born in San Antonio, Texas, the younger of two daughters born to a pair of former migrant farm workers from Laredo, Texas. ... called the Gomez incident ''an unfortunate accident,'' but still teaches the vault at his gym in Huntington Beach, Calif. The Run The gymnast begins at the end of a runway approximately 82 feet or less from the table.

The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is VT.

Yurchenko is the name of both a specific vault and a vault family in artistic gymnastics. Athlete deaths. She trained with Béla Károlyi in Houston from the age of 10. The gymnast then jumps backwards to a handstand, with or without a half or full twist. (She may choose the exact distance of the run). It`s a disservice to the kids to teach them the (Yurchenko) vault. Yurchenko accidents usually occur when gymnasts land either too far in front of the board or when their foot drops off the backside, as Gomez`s did. The vault is an artistic gymnastics apparatus, as well as the skill performed using that apparatus. Julissa suffered the spinal injury performing a vault she has been executing for three years--a round-off onto a springboard, a back handspring onto the vaulting horse. Julissa Gomez and the Yurchenko vault. A Yurchenko vault (first performed by Natalia Yurchenko of the Soviet Union) begins with a round-off on the runway with the gymnast's feet landing backwards on the springboard. Both male and female gymnasts perform the vault. The Yurchenko Vault – in her own words: “This vault is in the code of points under my own name.

Bogi, at the time, disagreed. But a handful of male gymnasts compete this type of vault safely. To perform a vault, the gymnast runs down a runway (the run), which is usually padded or carpeted. They hurdle onto a springboard and spring onto the vault with their hands (the preflight or first flight, and block).

From the L.A. Times – November 17, 1989: Svetlana Boginskaia of the Soviet Union, who used a Yurchenko when she won the gold medal in vaulting at the 1988 Olympics, said there’s little risk with the roundoff approach.
At the 1986 U.S. Championships, she placed fourth in the all-around in the junior division and won a place on the U.S. National Team. The landing area in which the athlete descends at the completion of the vault is 12 in thick (30 cm). People began shouting and running as Fong stood rooted, stunned. Yurchenko is the name of both a specific vault and a vault family in artistic gymnastics.The Yurchenko was named after Soviet gymnast Natalia Yurchenko in 1982 during a competition in Moscow. Yurchenko vaults are by far the most popular type of vault for women. She flopped to the mat like a shot bird. Indeed, I was the first gymnast to do this vault during an official competition. The first gymnast to actually perform it in a competition was Viktor Levinkov, a male Russian gymnast, who was the original inventor of the Yurchenko. Vaulting is also the action of performing a vault. The force of the vault carried her body over the horse.