U.S. Gymnastics Trials: Simone Biles leads all-around heading into final day (2024)

DiCello injured her Achilles while performing her competition vault and will miss the rest of trials, USAG confirmed after the meet.

She fell during her vault and was taken out in a wheelchair at the start of competition Friday night.

The injury puts her Olympic hopes on hold. DiCello was an alternate during the Tokyo Olympics but didn't compete.

The extent of Jones' injury is unknown. She grabbed her knee on her vault landing during warmups and sat out all but bars in competition. Her score on the bars remains the highest going into Sunday's final.

That's it for Day 1 of women's Olympic gymnastics trials. After one more day of competition on Sunday, the Olympic team will be named.

Friday's competition took an unexpected and heartbreaking turn before the broadcast even began, but the end result is far from shocking —the Tokyo Olympic team is rearing for a return to the Games.

Simone Biles topped the standings despite a perilous outing on the balance beam, scoring a 58.900 in the all-around. Her training mate, Jordan Chiles, scored a 56.400. Olympic gold medalists, Suni Lee and Jade Carey, were third and fourth, respectively.

Another club mate of Biles, Joscelyn Roberson, finished fifth. Lee won beam and Shilese Jones won bars, the only event she competed in on the first night.

Chiles, who finished Day 1 trailing all-around leader Simone Biles by 2.5 points, said trials was "the most stressful meet I’ve done in my life."

"It’s when you find out if you make it or you don’t," she said.

That’ssaying something considering she competed in the Tokyo Olympic team competition where Biles withdrew after suffering from the twisties.She had to compete last minute on bars and beam with a minimal warm up there.

She credits competing in NCAA gymnastics at UCLA with building her confidence under pressure.

Biles' demeanor in the lead-up to these trials could not be more different from the Tokyo cycle.

She appears to be all smiles, laughing and cheering on her teammates like the boisterous 19-year-old we got to know at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Biles was not without mistakes here, but the palpable tension she seemed to carry even at the trials for the Tokyo Olympics feels miles away.

The crowd in the arena immediately took to their feet once Biles landed her eponymous vault, a Yurchenko double pike.

She earned a 15.975, the highest score of the night by over a point.

The skill is the most jaw-dropping, difficult piece of women's gymnastics being done in the world right now. She did a second vault, the Cheng, to show the selection committee her prowess for the Olympic vault final, where two vaults are required.

What a day for the reigning Olympic all-around champion. The hometown crowd would have loved the routine no matter what, but Lee's exquisite tumbling and dance elements were very popular in the Target Center.

Lee may have looked like a bars and beam specialist earlier in the season, but she could be a threat for an all-around medal in Paris, scoring a 55.475 here.

Tokyo Olympians topped the leaderboard going into the fourth and final rotation.

Simone Biles, Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles occupied the top three spots.

Jade Carey did what she does best: tumbling into the rafters.

The reigning Olympic floor champ looks ready to defend her title in Paris. She earned a 14.075, behind only Chiles and Biles.

Three American icons converge in Minneapolis tonight. Biles' floor routine is set to "...Ready For It?" from Taylor Swift's sixth album, "Reputation." The remix she uses also includes a snippet of "Delresto (Echoes)" by Travis Scott and Beyoncé.

"I do love Taylor Swift, and I do love Beyoncé," Biles said ahead of the meet. "Those are my girls."

She performed two eponymous skills, including her jaw-dropping opening pass, the triple-twisting double back. The routine put Biles back on top of the all-around standings, earning a 14.850.

That save from Lee will go down in balance beam history.

The beginning of her routine was virtually flawless, but on her side aerial, layout series, she was completely crooked. She managed to stay on after a few precarious moments. It will be a significant deduction, but she avoided a full-point loss from a fall.

That's why Lee is an Olympic champion.

Reigning Olympic all-around champion and Minnesota-native, Suni Lee, is performing for a hometown crowd at these trials. Lee trains in St. Paul at Midwest Gymnastics, a mere 20 minute drive from the Target Center.

"I think there can be unforeseen challenges for the home event," said Lee’s longtime coach, Jess Graba on Wednesday. "Obviously, you have more family, you have more people around, a lot more tickets... I suppose you’re gonna be stressed no matter what."

With an unprecedented number of frontrunners potentially out of the Olympic picture, Biles' teen club mates are looking sharp.

Tiana Sumanasekera, 16, currently has the highest score on the balance beam, a 13.950. Joscelyn Roberson, 18, was on the 2023 world championship team and had a strong showing on floor (13.925) after struggling with some form deductions at U.S. Gymnastics Championships.

Unlike some Olympic sports like track or swimming, selecting an Olympic gymnastics team isn’t always as simple as taking the top five in the all-around.

The top priority for Team USA is maximizing their scoring potential in the team final, where the team gold medal will be awarded. Three gymnasts compete on each apparatus in the team final and all scores count. In addition to the all-around rankings, the selection committee will look at the top three gymnasts on each apparatus.

For example, if Suni Lee, who is world-class on the uneven bars and the balance beam, finishes outside the top five in the all-around, the selection would be wise to take her to Paris anyway. It’s unlikely the team would put Lee up on the vault in team finals anyway, but they could use her on any event in a pinch.

It's an unusual sight on the leaderboard —Simone Biles is not winning.

Leanne Wong is currently in the lead after debuting a new vault upgrade, the Cheng. She originally received a 2-point deduction for a one-handed take off, but she appealed her score and eventually received a 14.450.

Biles had a few costly wobbles on beam and is currently three tenths behind Wong, but she has her best two events —floor and vault — to go.

Biles is typically a rock on the balance beam, but nearly came off on the first few skills.

She finished strong with a full-twisting double back dismount. Ever the perfectionist, Biles grimaced after she finished the routine.

Lee is an Olympic medalist on the uneven bars and it shows.

She hit a new routine with enormous difficulty, performing a Nabieva to a Bhardwaj for a 14.400. The selection committee will not want to leave that routine at home.

After competing just one routine, Jones is out for the rest of the night. The selection committee will have a difficult job with three of the top contenders suffering injuries.

DiCello and Jones' status for Sunday remains unknown.

Reporting from Minneapolis

Women’s gymnastics trials are underway, and many eyes are on Simone Biles, who is all but certain to make Team USA and compete in the Paris Olympics. NBC News’ Jay Gray reports on the Olympic hopefuls.

After withdrawing from vault in the first rotation, Jones hit her best event, the uneven bars. She earned the highest score of the night with a 14.675.

Jones performed a slightly easier routine than usual, omitting a difficult skill at the top. The dismount was solid, but she limped as she left the competition floor.

Chiles debuted a risky pike beam mount in tonight's competition. She nearly came off, but saved it in impressive fashion. The rest of her routine was wobble-free.

With her primary competition, DiCello, out for the night, Chiles is rising to the occasion as she aims to make her second Olympic team.

Carey is known for being a steady competitor, but her fortitude on beam in these trials is particularly impressive. She showed no nerves despite the turmoil so far at these trials — an important quality for Olympic contention.

University of Florida gymnast, Leanne Wong, is not only shooting for the Paris Olympics; she hopes to attend medical school. A member of the last three world championship teams, Wong competed an entire NCAA gymnastics season with the Gators this year in addition to her elite training and is enrolled in organic chemistry this summer.

"Honestly, I kind of like to have different things going on," Wong told NBC News earlier this season. "So I'm not too focused on one thing, so I have different things, different goals, different schedules."

As if learning chemistry and training new vault upgrades isn't enough, Wong also owns her own bow business, her signature accessory.

DiCello, a frontrunner to make her first Olympic team, will not compete tonight, USA Gymnastics confirmed. She is currently being evaluated by the medical team after falling on vault in the first rotation.

Nerves are to be expected when Olympic dreams are on the line, but the energy among the athletes seems particularly strained tonight.

Three frontrunners for the Olympic team have suffered injuries here and left the floor in wheelchairs, illustrating how quickly life-time dreams can be dashed. Skye Blakely withdrew after an Achilles injury during podium training. She entered the arena on crutches to loud cheers from the crowd.

Shilese Jones is still on the start list for uneven bars, but did not compete on vault.

Jones will sit out vault after receiving medical attention in warm-ups. She plans to return on the uneven bars, USA Gymnastics confirmed.

The selection procedures prohibit athletes from filing petitions to be named to the Olympic team in case of injury at trials.

You must compete at trials to be named to the team, barring illness or other extenuating circ*mstances, with injury being a notable exception.

In the first true hit of the night, Biles hit a clean set on the uneven bars. Her double-twisting double back flip dismount is the hardest dismount being done here.

Kayla DiCello has fallen on her competition vault and was taken out in a wheelchair. She didn't complete her planned double-twisting Yurchenko, only doing a tuck.

DiCello's vault was the first piece of gymnastics of the night.

Shilese Jones walked out into the arena when her name was announced.

Frontrunner and world all-around bronze medalist, Shilese Jones, landed short on a vault in warmups. There was an audible noise in the arena and Jones received medical attention. Simone Biles immediately ran over to check on her world championship teammate.

As of now, she is still competing, but has yet to re-emerge onto the competition floor. Jones missed U.S. Championships due to a shoulder injury.

This Olympic cycle, the USA Gymnastics leadership is made up of former elite gymnasts. 2008 Olympic silver medalists Alicia Sacramone Quinn and Chellsie occupy share the high performance leadership role with Dan Baker.

Quinn, who helms the Olympic selection committee as the strategic lead, said she "can approach it a little bit more delicately" due to her own Olympic experiences. She was named to the 2008 team, but fell short at 2012 trials.

"I know how both sides feel," Quinn said. "Either way, we're going to be crushing people's dreams in that moment... I’ll stay there and if someone needs to yell or cry or do whatever, I’ll be the person and I’m fine."

USA Gymnastics also told reporters that mental health professionals will be available to the athletes after the team is announced Sunday.

Simone Biles is in the building and is looking solid as usual on the balance beam. No nerves in sight for the reigning world beam champion.

After having been named an alternate for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, DiCello is back for another shot at her Olympic dream.

She took the year off from competing in NCAA gymnastics for the University of Florida to return to her elite club and train for Paris. It appears that that decision has paid off for DiCello, whose bronze medal performance at the championships had “Olympian” written all over it.

She sometimes struggles with consistency, but if she hits eight out of eight routines this weekend, this may be her year.

Bars phenom Suni Lee has been teasing upgrades on the uneven bars in the lead up to the trials. Since the U.S. Championships, she has reintroduced two key skills from her routine at the Tokyo Olympics: a Nabieva and a Bhardwaj. Skills in gymnastics are named after the first gymnast to perform them successfully in a major international competition.

Lee hit both skills in the warm ups, but if she can connect them during the competition without pausing, her score could be Olympic-medal worthy.

After a disappointing performance at the championships, Wong seemed to be on track to repeat as an Olympic alternate. At a training session in Minneapolis on Wednesday, she debuted a Cheng vault, potentially intercepting that narrative. Wong’s boost in difficulty could pay off if she competes it successfully, but last-minute upgrades are not always worth the risk.

Her gymnastics is stunning to watch, and she will hope to return to her consistency earlier in the quad, having won a gold medal in the team event at the last two world championships and an individual all-around silver at the 2021 world championships.

If there’s anything to be gleaned from the last few Olympic Games, it’s that gymnastics is a precarious sport.

Even the best athletes in the world can get injured or find themselves unable to compete on the sport’s biggest stage. Simone Biles’ battle with the twisties at the Olympics in Tokyo three years ago is the most high profile example of this, but virtually every Olympic team in recent memory has had to adjust to last-minute injuries. This possibility will be top of mind for the selection committee, who will likely select athletes who can be counted on to put up a solid score on any event if needed.

At last year’s world championships, Joscelyn Roberson went down with an ankle inquiry while warming up for the Team Final. Like at the Tokyo Olympics, it was too late to sub in an alternate for a team member who was forced to withdraw, leaving the team one member short. The Paris team is expected to be a well-rounded bunch in case disaster strikes Team USA once again.

According to the start list, Biles will kick off her third Olympic trials on the uneven bars. It is her weakest event of the four, but she is still a world silver medalist on the apparatus. She'll then head to beam, then floor and will end on vault.

Suni Lee and Shilese Jones will compete in what is called "Olympic order" tonight: vault, bars, beam and floor. When Lee won all-around gold in Tokyo, she rotated in the same order.

Six-time world medalist Shilese Jones withdrew from the U.S. Championships last month due to a shoulder injury that flared up in Fort Worth.

“We’ve slowly been building back up into routines," Jones’ coach Sarah Korngold said Wednesday. "Obviously we don’t have as many repetitions as maybe we would like, but her body’s feeling good and we still feel like we made the right decision."

Jones is one of the frontrunners for a spot on the Paris team and has looked solid in training here in Minneapolis.

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The reigning Olympic champion on floor, Carey, at top form, would complement this team in many ways.

She is obviously strong on the floor exercise and has potential for a vault medal, as well. She is a master at peaking at the right time, and she unveiled an Amanar vault in training.

She is absolutely still in the hunt for her second Olympic team.

All four of Simone Biles' routines are a must-watch tonight, but other athletes have more to prove to the selection committee. Suni Lee's uneven bars and balance beam routines could make or break her Paris chances. Jordan Chiles, Kayla DiCello and Jade Carey will battle it out on floor for what might be the final spot on the team.

Leanne Wong's new vault, the Cheng, could punch her ticket to Paris, but last-minute upgrades are always a risk. Frontrunner Shilese Jones is back after grappling with a shoulder injury, so be sure to catch her Olympic medal-worthy bars routine too.

At last year’s world championships, Simone Biles had a 1.5-point lead on her closest competitor, Rebeca Andrade, in terms of difficulty, giving her ahigher scoring potential and a buffer equal to at least one fall. Biles had more than a 2-point advantage on world all-around bronze medalist Shilese Jones, her closest American competitor.

Biles does the hardest gymnastics in the sport and still maintains some of the highest execution scores. She does not have to choose whether to focus on difficulty or execution, but other gymnasts are typically known for one or the other.

The easiest way to determine a good score on each event is to look at the execution component of the score, which is typically displayed next to the total score on the NBC broadcast.

Gymnasts who have less than a point to a point and a half of deductions for routines or execution scores in the 8.5-10.0 range are likely to be in good positions. Look to the corresponding difficulty score to know just how good — the higher, the better.

The four apparatuses have different scoring potentials, so a good score on the balance beam may not be the same as a good score on the vault. Here’s an estimate of what the world’s best gymnasts will be shooting for on each apparatus at the trials and in Paris:

Blakely, a 19-year-old Texas native, sustained an injury to her right Achilles tendon during podium training Wednesday and will not compete in the Olympic trials. She was a front runner to make her first Olympic team, having finished second in the all-around to Biles at this year's U.S. Championships.

Blakely was carried off of the competition floor with her face in her hands and wheeled out of the arena by medical staff.

It was a devastating echo of the scene in St. Louis three years ago, when she withdrew from the Tokyo Olympic trials in 2021 after sustaining an elbow injury in warmups for the competition.

Joscelyn Roberson

Roberson trains at World Champions Centre alongside Biles. She had a stellar 2023 and made the world team last fall, though she was injured immediately before the team final. She is a “power gymnast” whose best events are floor and vault, but she is being outpaced by gymnasts with similar strengths.

Kaliya Lincoln

Like Shilese Jones, Lincoln is coming back from an injury and had to file a petition to compete at the trials. She is here primarily for one event, floor exercise, which also happens to be USA’s weakest at the moment. It is very possible that Lincoln finishes top three on the event at the trials, but unfortunately she is not the strongest all-around gymnast.

Lee, the reigning Olympic all-around champion,is not quite as strong on all four apparatuses as she was in Tokyo after having battled a kidney illness for the past year. However, her Paris prospects are still promising because of her medal potential on the balance beam and the uneven bars.

On both days of the U.S. Championships, Lee delivered spectacular routines on the beam, cementing her potential as an asset the U.S. would certainly use on that event in the team final. Lee hopes to increase her all-around score to prove that she can be relied upon on all four events in a pinch, but her bars and beam could be enough for the selection committee to take her.

WhenU.S. Olympicgymnast Jordan Chiles was 17, one of her former coaches called her “double head,” because, as she recalled, her “hair was too big.” Someone also questioned whether she was her mother’s daughter because of her darker skin.

Those common occurrences — and an overall lack of diversity within amateur gymnastics — caused Chiles to contemplate leaving the sport she loved.

“I wanted to be done, because I didn’t think ... the sport wanted me,” Chiles said onNBC’s “My New Favorite Olympian” podcast.“I didn’t think people around me wanted to see this beautiful Black girl in a [leotard] anymore.”

But Chiles chose to persevere. Instead of quitting, she continued embracing her true self and embarked on a journey of empowering women of color.

Click here to read the full article

The world will be watching if and when Simone Biles goes for gold at theSummer Olympics in Paris, but perhaps no one will be more invested in what the legendary gymnast does than her mother.

Biles has won four Olympic gold medals — plus one silver and a pair of bronze — as well as secured a recordninthall-around national championshiptitle, but her mother,Nellie Biles, sees beyond an athlete who dominates her sport.

“The Simone that I know is a young adult that I admire. She knows what she wants,” Nellie Biles told Priscilla Thompson in an exclusive interview that aired on "TODAY" on June 13.

Olympic gymnastics trialskicked off in Minneapolis on Thursday, with reigning world all-aroundbronze medalistFrederick Richardleading the men’s competition.

Richard, 20, a Massachusetts native, is not only a star on the floor exercise, but he also has a dedicated following on TikTok, where hedocuments his journeyas an Olympic hopeful. He placed first on floor and high bar and third on parallel bars.

Last year, he also led the U.S. men to a team bronze medal, their first podium finish at the world championships since 2014. The men’s Olympic team will be named shortly after Saturday’s competition.

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Most of the women here will not hear their names called as the confetti drops in the Target Center on Sunday. Every gymnast at this level has worked their entire lives dreaming of competing at the Olympics, but for some, this is as far as the dream goes.

Simply competing at the Olympic trials is an honor for the entire field and this competition marks the end of the road for some of these gymnasts. The U.S. women's Olympic gymnastics team is among the hardest in the world to make and nobody gets to this level without immense grit, talent and determination.

Scoring in gymnastics has changed significantly since the days of Nadia Comăneci and herillustrious “Perfect 10.”The current scoring system can seem less intuitive than the previous one to audiences who do not follow the sport between the Olympic Games.

The Perfect 10 still exists in gymnastics, but it is no longer the only metric used to calculate a score. Today’s gymnasts receive scores in two separate categories for each routine: difficulty and execution. The difficulty score is open-ended, while execution is scored out of a 10.00.

The difficulty and execution scores are combined to produce the final number. To optimize their scores, gymnasts perform the most difficult routines they can while minimizing execution deductions.

Read the full story here.

The top all-around finisher after two days of competition at the trials will receive an automatic spot on the five-member women’s Olympic team. The other four women competing in Paris will be determined by a selection committee, which will utilize the results from trials and previous competitions to complete the team.

Four Olympic alternates will also be named in Minneapolis, two of whom will travel to Paris to train with the team.

Read the full story here.