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The USA Gymnastics women’s roster is complete for the Tokyo Olympics.
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Three athletes will join Simone Biles on the American squad competing in the team all-around.
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Two additional gymnasts – Jade Carey and MyKayla Skinner – will head to Tokyo as specialists.
The Tokyo Olympics are less than a month away, and the USA Gymnastics women’s squad is finally complete.
Six women – all younger than 25 years old – will vie for gold as they represent the United States on the world’s biggest stage. Four of the six will compete in the team all-around competition as the Americans seek their third-consecutive gold medal in the event, while the other two athletes will head to Tokyo as specialists.
Simone Biles, the 24-year-old widely understood to be the greatest gymnast in the sport’s history, headlines the young squad. Since dominating the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro to the tune of four golds and one bronze medal, Biles has pushed herself and the sport to new heights en route to becoming the most decorated gymnast – man or woman – in the history of world championship gymnastics.
Now, as she enters the final elite gymnastics competition of her illustrious career, Biles is primed to become the most accomplished Olympian of all time. And she’ll have the chance to do it alongside a close friend and teammate from her Spring, Texas, gym.
Jordan Chiles – a 20-year-0ld Vancouver, Washington, native – moved across the country from her hometown in 2019 to train at World Champions Centre. Since joining Biles at her family’s academy, Chiles has catapulted onto the national scene and mold herself into a frontrunner for an Olympics roster spot.
Her performance at the 2021 US Championships – where she finished top-five in every individual event – all but confirmed that she’d be heading to Tokyo. In addition to her third-place all-around finish, Chiles took bronze on the vault and fourth on the balance beam, uneven bars, and floor exercise.
She replicated that effort at USA Gymnastics Olympic Trials this weekend, finishing second on bars, third on floor, third on vault, fourth on beam, and third overall. She became an obvious choice for the selection committee to add to the four-woman team seeking all-around gold in Tokyo.
Second place at trials went to Sunisa “Suni” Lee, giving her a guaranteed spot on that same four-woman squad. The 18-year-old took second place behind Biles in the US Championships all-around earlier in June. Lee earned a silver medal on the balance beam and finished fifth on the floor exercise, but she shined brightest on the uneven bars down in Fort Worth, Texas, where she won gold by a near half of a point.
Lee bested that already incredible effort on bars at this weekend’s trials in St. Louis, where she outperformed Chiles – the second-place finisher – by a greater than two-point margin. The St. Paul, Minnesota, native also finished first on the balance beam to outscore Biles on the second day of trials. It’s the first time anyone has bested Biles in a single day of all-around competition since 2013, per NBC’s Nick Zaccardi.
Grace McCallum rounds out the United States’ four-person all-around squad. After tying for seventh in the US Championships all-around, the 18-year-old Isanti, Minnesota, native shined at trials with top-five performances on floor, uneven bars, and beam to finish fourth in the all-around and secure her spot on the squad via the USA Gymnastics selection committee.
Jade Carey – a 21-year-old Phoenix native – clinched one of the US’ two individual slots for the Tokyo Olympics in April 2020. By skipping the World Championships in 2018, Carey was able to qualify via her stellar performances at four World Cup competitions between 2018 and 2019. And though she hoped to secure a spot to compete in the team all-around event, Carey’s 16th-place finish overall at Olympic trials was far from enough to push her onto the squad.
Best known for her brilliance on vault – the event in which she’s earned two silver medals at Worlds – Carey has also won World Championship silver and Pan American Championship gold on the floor exercise. As something of a specialist in both events, the 5-foot-2 gymnast will look to qualify and medal in the events that Biles has long had on lock.
The oldest of the group, 24-year-old MyKayla Skinner, earned a spot in Tokyo as the second specialist via the selection committee after her fifth-place finish at Olympic Trials. Like Carey, the Gilbert, Arizona native is known for her vaulting ability.
Though she ranked top-10 in the other three events in St. Louis, Skinner excelled on the vault to finish less than half a point behind Biles this weekend. Expect the University of Utah alumna to make a splash in the event come Olympics time.
Kayla DiCello, Kara Eaker, Leanne Wong, and Emma Malabuyo – who finished sixth through ninth at trials this weekend – will accompany the team as alternates in Tokyo. Should any of those six gymnasts suffer an injury or find themselves in a position where they couldn’t compete, one of the four alternates would take her place.
Women’s qualification at this summer’s Olympics begins Sunday, July 25. The team all-around final will take place two days later, with the individual all-around following two days after that.
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