Follow our Olympics coverage in the lead-up to the Paris Games.
FORT WORTH, Texas — A crowded field vying for five spots on the U.S. women’s Olympic gymnastics team has dwindled to 16 after this weekend’s U.S. championships, but shrinking the pool doesn’t mean choosing who gets a ticket to Paris will be easy.
Among the group invited to the U.S. Olympic Trials are three Olympic champions, a Tokyo silver medalist, multiple world championship medalists and a handful of newcomers who are packed with potential. Notable contenders like 2012 Olympic all-around champion Gabby Douglas and 2022 U.S. champion Konnor McClain, who helped LSU to its first NCAA gymnastics championship in April, are no longer in the mix due to injuries. So who fits where? And how should the U.S. approach the “three up, three count” format — in which three athletes compete in each apparatus and all three scores count, often incentivizing a team to select gymnasts who excel in certain events — for the team final?
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Start with Simone Biles, as she’s a lock on this 2024 team barring injury between now and June 28 when the trials begin. After taking a two-year hiatus from competition following the Tokyo Games, where she struggled with the twisties, Biles has continued her dominance with few challengers. Her difficulty scores on vault and floor exercise are unmatched across the world, and her multiple all-around titles prove her uneven bars and balance beam scores rank among the best as well.
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After winning a historic ninth national all-around title at championships, the 27-year-old Biles said Sunday she’s “aging like fine wine” and feels she’s in a good place — both physically and mentally — heading into the summer.
The next gymnast who nears Biles’ level of locked-in for the team is Shilese Jones. Though she didn’t compete at U.S. championships due to a shoulder injury flaring up after the Core Hydration Classic earlier in May, Jones successfully petitioned to compete in the Olympic trials and will likely place second in the all-around if she performs to her normal standard.
While Team USA could slot her in on any event in the final, Jones’ biggest contribution would come on uneven bars. She’s a two-time world medalist in the event and debuted a new release move at the Core Hydration Classic that resulted in a massive score of 15.250. The 21-year-old Jones really blossomed this Olympic cycle after struggling with consistency issues earlier in her elite career. Now, with six medals from two world championship appearances under her belt, she’s a seasoned competitor who has hit when the pressure was highest.
The tricky part is filling out the remaining three spots, with multiple combinations of gymnasts that would all give the U.S. a shot at team gold — especially given that defending champion Russia will not be in Paris after the IOC banned the country from competing in team events.
Considering the results of this weekend’s U.S. championships, Skye Blakely’s stock rose the most after she competed a new, more difficult vault and hit eight routines across two nights to finish second in the all-around. Blakely’s potential has always been evident — particularly on beam, where her difficulty value is so high she could have a major mistake and still come away with a decent score — but her track record includes multiple falls at international competitions and a fall on bars at the Core Hydration Classic.
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It would be hard to leave Blakely at home if she repeats that level of performance at trials, but a fall on either of the two nights might knock her out of contention if other competitors have cleaner meets. There is a possibility Blakely makes the team for her vault and bars scores without even needing beam if the team is constructed to include other gymnasts who can slot into that event lineup for finals.
Kayla DiCello, an alternate for the 2020 Olympic and 2023 world championship teams, finished behind Blakely in the all-around at U.S. championships. DiCello is a well-balanced all-arounder when she hits but, like Blakely, has trouble with falls. She was solid on the first night of U.S. championships but fell off bars Sunday night and had a bars fall at the Classic. Though she wouldn’t likely qualify to any individual event finals at the Olympics, DiCello scores well enough on any of the four events to compete anywhere in team finals.
Suni Lee, the breakout star of the 2020 Olympics, is back in the mix after a fourth-place finish at nationals in her first all-around appearance since her gold-medal performance in Tokyo. A kidney-related health issue hampered Lee’s comeback attempt last year, but she looked strong on beam and capable of increasing her difficulty on bars to make a strong case for a spot on the Paris team. Her 14.900 score Sunday on beam was the highest of the championships in that event.
As for bars, Lee earned scores in the mid-14s for what she considers a watered-down routine. For trials, she plans to bring back two skills that played a big role in her difficult bars set in 2020: a laid-out release move known as a “Nabieva” and a full-twisting transition skill from the high bar to low bar. Those two elements will rocket up her difficulty score and make her even more valuable in a potential bars lineup. Lee also brought back her double-twisting vault, which she failed to land cleanly Sunday due to an issue in her entry, and said her floor routine may change as well.
“I kind of want to add something (to floor) because I’m just a little bored of it, but also I know my stamina is not really up to par with what I want it to be,” she said.
Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey, two veterans returning for a shot at a second Olympics after Tokyo, finished fifth and seventh, respectively, in the all-around. But don’t count either of them out.
Carey, the 2020 Olympic gold medalist on floor, has a new floor routine choreographed by 1992 Olympian Betty Okino and set to “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes that she said is her “favorite routine yet.” She has plans to add difficulty, which will give her scores a boost and make her a possible contributor on floor. She also intends to increase her vault score by competing an “Amanar,” a skill with 2 1/2 twists, rather than the double twist she showed at championships. No other American gymnast is currently performing an Amanar.
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Chiles didn’t have her best showing at championships, counting a fall on her floor routine in the first night and a fall off the beam early during the second night, but she bounced back to record three scores over 14.00 on Sunday. By the final rotation, Chiles was doing the “Cha Cha Slide” before warming up her bar routine, for which she earned a 14.500 score and second place. She could fit into a third all-arounder spot for the U.S. to support gymnasts who have weaker events or compete in team finals to give gymnasts like Biles and Jones a break during the strenuous schedule of the Olympics.
Outside contenders and dark horses still in the mix include Leanne Wong, Joscelyn Roberson, Tiana Sumanasekera and Kaliya Lincoln.
All eyes will be on Minneapolis at the end of June with little envy for the selection committee that will have to choose the final group to send to the Paris Olympics.
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(Top photo of Skye Blakely, Simone Biles and Kayla DiCello at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)