The Produnova is a women's artistic gymnastics vault consisting of a front handspring onto the vaulting horse and two front somersaults in a tucked position off it. Under the 2017–2020 Code of Points, the vault has a D-score of 6.4, and is considered one of the hardest vaults ever performed in women's artistic gymnastics. It currently ties for the highest D-score on this apparatus with the Biles vault. It is named after Yelena Produnova of Russia, who was the first person to complete it successfully in 1999. This vault is also called the "vault of death" due to its high level difficulty and likelihood of injury. The D-score of the Produnova has been slowly reduced over the quads from 7.1 to 7.0 and now 6.4. This is a deliberate attempt by the International Gymnastics Federation, which makes no secret about their intentions, to discourage gymnasts who are not yet ready to attempt the skill doing so at the higher than normal risk of injury when they are training or competing the skill. The FIG has done this despite publicly acknowledging that the Produnova probably deserves a higher D-score than it is currently assigned, citing safety concerns over the health and wellbeing of all gymnasts.
Gymnasts who have successfully completed the Produnova
Controversy was sparked after a video shared of Fadwa Mahmoud's first competitive Produnova attempt where she nearly landed on her neck. As long as the gymnast lands on her feet first, she will get credit for the vault, and because of the massive difficulty value the Produnova possesses, it is easy to get a relatively high score even with poor execution. There have been calls for the Produnova vault to be banned due to the high level of risk. In the Code of Points that came into effect in 2017, the vault has been reduced in value to a D-score of 6.4, with poor landings of it specifically penalised in section 10.4 of the Code. If a gymnast attempts the vault but lands on her feet and any other body part simultaneously, the second somersault will then be regarded as incomplete; thus, the vault will only be credited as a front handspring onto the vault and into only a single front somersault off it.
