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.

The word 'somersault' is derived from Old Provençal sobresaut (via Middle French sombresault) meaning "jump over", from sobre, "over" (from Latin supra-, as in supranational); and saut, "jump" (from Latin saltus, the same root as salient).^[2]

Somersaults may be performed with different positions, including tucked, piked (bent at the hips), straddled, and layout (straight body).^[3] Somersaults are often completed with twists.^[4]

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.^[5]

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.^[6] They are counted as front tumbling in women's artistic gymnastics^[7] and back tumbling in men's artistic gymnastics.^[8]

By 2003, the tucked double back salto had become common in women's gymnastics.^[4] The triple back salto exists in men's gymnastics but was rarely competed until 2017.^[9]

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.^[10][11]

• Aerial cartwheel
• Cartwheel (gymnastics)
• Roll (gymnastics)
• Trampolining
• Tumbling
• Parkour
• Handspring
• Diving
• Tumble turn