A star-studded field, including three Olympic gold medallists in Simone Biles, Suni Lee, and Jade Carey, headline the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Gymnastics, set for 27-30 June at Minneapolis’ Target Center.
Team USA will announce both its Paris 2024 men’s (29 June) and women’s (30 June) teams for artistic gymnastics at the event.
Biles enters competition as the far and away favourite to grab the one automatic berth to the U.S. team that goes to the highest all-around scorer across the two days of competition.
A selection committee, which includes 2008 Olympic silver medallist Alicia Sacramone, Tatiana Perskaia and Jessie DeZiel, will select the remaining four team members, as well as two traveling and two non-traveling replacement athletes.
Though it will be a tight race for those final four spots, three women have emerged as favourites after competition at the U.S. Classic and U.S. Championships, but each faces her own unique challenges.
Ahead of the U.S. nationals, Shilese Jones, a two-time world all-around medallist, seemed as close to a lock as anyone not named Biles. But a shoulder injury flared up following her impressive season debut at the U.S. Classic. Jones withdrew from the U.S. Championships and successfully petitioned to the trials with her coach Sarah Korngold telling GymCastic they would have competed if it was the trials. All eyes will be on Jones’ form during official practice on Wednesday (26 June).
Second at the U.S. championships, Skye Blakely finds herself in prime position for a first trip to the Games. She’ll need to push aside bad memories from the 2021 trials where Blakely, who was eligible for Tokyo 2020 after the Games were delayed a year for COVID-19, was injured to deliver another strong performance and cement her spot.
Suni Lee, the reigning Olympic all-around champion, also looks to be in good shape for Paris after finishing fourth in the all-around at the U.S. championships. She had stand out individual event finishes on the uneven bars (4th) and balance beam (2nd).
Lee has been dealing with a kidney-related health issue that has had her in and out of training since early 2023. She and coach Jess Graba told Olympics.com earlier this year that she was in remission and feeling good. Lee will look to continue her rapid improvement in her hometown of Minneapolis, including adding elements to her uneven bars routine, to clinch her ticket to Paris.
The battle for the final spot will be intense with 2023 Pan Am Games all-around champion Kayla DiCello; Tokyo 2020 Olympic floor champion Carey; 2021 world all-around silver medallist Leanne Wong; Tokyo 2020 Olympic team silver medallist Jordan Chiles; and 2023 Pan Am Games floor champion Kaliya Lincoln all in the mix.