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US Gymnastics Championships 2024: Pre-Olympics Takeaways


  • Alyssa Roenigk, ESPN senior writerJune 3, 2024, 10:14 am ET

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      Alyssa Roenigk is a senior writer for ESPN whose assignments have taken her to six continents and led her to commit countless acts of recklessness. (Follow @alyroe on Twitter).

FORT WORTH, Texas – For a career-high ninth time, Simone Biles is the U.S. overall champion, winning with a two-day total that was nearly six points ahead of second place.

That's a larger margin than the one that separated second and tenth place. Her Friday night overall score of 60.450 was the highest of any woman in the world since Tokyo.

“I use the phrase 'age like a fine wine,'” Biles said Sunday night. “He's getting better and better. So we'll see. Hopefully we can hold on to this for the rest of the year.”

For the second time in her career, Biles also won each of the four event titles at championships: on uneven bars, balance beam, floor and vault. She is just the third woman to win all five gold medals at the national level and the only one to do so twice.

“I think they're great coaches,” Biles said of her ability to stay on top for so long. “Cécile and Laurent [Landi] knowing exactly where we should be and when we should be there. “It goes back to how we train in the gym. It correlates to how we compete.”

It's safe to say, in the understatement of the year, that Biles has a shot at making her third Olympic team and leading Team USA to Paris. Shilese Jones, who withdrew from the championships last week due to a lingering shoulder and biceps injury, applied to try out and has proven over the past year to be the No. 2 gymnast in the country. If the selection committee were to name the team today, Jones would take second place.

That leaves three spots remaining. And while the championships were important, the Olympic trials in Minneapolis on June 27-30 are arguably more important than any meet since Tokyo. Especially for gymnasts who want to convince the selection committee that they deserve one of those last spots on the team.

With no competition before Paris, here are five takeaways from two fantastic nights of competition in Fort Worth:

It Looks Like Suni Lee Will Peak at Exactly the Right Time

A year ago, after being diagnosed with kidney disease, Lee didn't know if she would ever wear a leotard again. This weekend, he competed in his first all-around meet since Tokyo and looked a lot like Lee who won the Olympic all-around title and, in some ways, even better.

“It feels really good,” Lee said of having a full match behind her. “I'm super happy with my performance on beam. I feel like beam and bars are where I'm going to be the most help to the team, so I'm glad I was able to put them on my feet.”

Lee's coach, Jess Graba, has paced her return to competition by focusing on not overwhelming her physically or mentally. Since last August, she has little by little been adding skills to her routines at each meet. She didn't perform a floor routine until Friday night, as she worked to regain her stamina.

Your plan seems to be working perfectly. Lee's consistency and confidence have improved with each meet, and in Fort Worth, she was stellar on beam, earning a 14.9 on Sunday night and finishing second to Biles on the event. Lee scored 14 or more in three of four rotations and finished 0.15 off the overall podium, and that was with a rare fall on vault Sunday night. It was an incredible return to overall competition in one of the deepest fields in American history.

Lee said she plans to improve her floor and bars routines for Minneapolis, and if she performs anything like she did this weekend, she will be headed to her second Olympics in July.

Skye Blakely also defended herself

That leaves two spots for the Olympic team. And Blakely, who finished second in the all-around behind Biles, second on vault and third on bars and beam, looked like an Olympian this weekend. His performance went a long way towards securing fourth place on the team.

I could have done it alone in the vault.

Blakely has been working on a Cheng vault (a half Yurchenko on the springboard with a 1.5 arranged outside of it) for years. It is one of the most difficult jumps in the world and essential in the Olympic Games.

The week before Fort Worth, Blakely said he began training the skill on an elevated landing mat to gain confidence before taking it to a hard surface for the first time. She did that on Friday night in Fort Worth and earned a huge 15.0 for her efforts.

“It's a big difference training on soft mats in the gym and landing in an arena like this, so I'm really happy to be able to bring it here,” Blakely said Sunday. “That was my first 15, so it was exciting,” she said.

But his performance in Fort Worth was better than a jump. She showed that she is a great all-rounder with scores that will matter in multiple events in the three-on-three format of the team finals at the Olympics.

That leaves a spot, and there are plenty of gymnasts who could claim it.

The list of potential Olympians was narrowed to 16 this weekend when USA Gymnastics named its senior national team at the end of competition. Those 16 gymnasts are invited to compete in the Olympic trials. And if Biles, Jones, Lee and Blakely actually get the top four spots, 12 gymnasts will compete for the final spot on the team. There is so much depth in that dozen.

Because of the strengths of those four gymnasts, there is an opportunity for an athlete who excels on floor to take last place. But it could also fall to a strong, versatile player with international experience who the team can rely on to take part in any event if someone gets injured. Or a combination of both.

Kayla DiCello She looked great on floor in Fort Worth and finished second overall to Biles in the event. She also placed third in the overall category.

tokyo olympic Jordan Chiles Her performance on Sunday night earned her the second-highest floor score of the weekend and she finished fifth all-around.

Jade Carey He is the current Olympic floor champion and has improved with each meet.

Leanne Wongwho has been part of the last three world championship teams, is a consistent and versatile player, but did not have her best performance on Sunday night.

Brody Malone is better than back: he is in Olympic shape

A little over a year ago, Malone crashed while descending from a high bar at a World Cup in Stuttgart, Germany, destroying his right knee. He fractured his tibia, tore his meniscus and two of the four main ligaments that support the knee joint. Four months earlier, he had become world champion on the high bar. Now his future was uncertain.

Then came three surgeries. Rehabilitation. The process of relearning to walk. And a reintroduction to gymnastics.

On Thursday night, in his first meet in more than a year, the Tokyo Olympian performed six of six routines and led the field heading into Saturday's final night of competition. There he also made a statement. When he dismounted with the bar high, he let out a roar.

“Going through what I've been through, I've learned to be grateful for every opportunity to compete,” Malone said after winning his third national title in four years. “And with that, I'm letting loose a little more and having more fun… I don't like losing. It motivates me. It makes me work hard. I didn't come here just to show up and compete. I wanted to win.”

American men ready to sweep Paris Games

Reigning world bronze medalist Fred Richard finished second this weekend, followed by Khoi Young and Tokyo Olympians Yul Moldauer and Shane Wiskus. Richard said that while he prefers to finish each meet with a gold medal around his neck, the championships give him hope about the team's potential in Paris. He believes he and his teammates can back up his bronze medal performance in Belgium. Having Malone back in the mix certainly helps his case.

“Let's just say we're going to be very deadly,” Richard said Saturday night. “This is going to be a fun Olympics. It's going to be amazing. We're fully equipped and stronger than I've seen in the United States in years. I think we can go for medals.”



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