100 days to Tokyo, and Biles has big plans
With 100 days to go before the Opening Ceremony of the delayed Tokyo Olympic Games, four-time gold medalist Simone Biles is contemplating a chance to make more gymnastics history this year and, perhaps, in years to come.
Biles, 24, will return to competition in May as Olympic sports emerge from the yearlong COVID-19 shutdown that resulted in the postponement of the 2020 Games.
The five-time world champion from Spring is one of a dozen or so Houston-area athletes either qualified for the Tokyo Games or preparing to qualify at international or domestic events this spring.
“I feel like every athlete can say the same: we’re not going to give up, and we’re going to keep striving for perfection,” Biles said last week during a news conference. “Hopefully we get to show off our athleticism this year at the Games.”
The Opening Ceremony is July 23, and gymnastics will be one of the first sports to compete that weekend.
Biles was scheduled to compete this month at an event in Tokyo that was scrubbed because of COVID concerns. She now will return to competition for the first time since the fall 2019 world championships May 22 at the U.S. Classic meet in Indianapolis, followed by the national champion
ships June 3-6 in Fort Worth and the Olympic Trials on June 24-27 in St. Louis.
With three elements named in her honor already included in the International Gymnastics Federation scoring system, Biles might attempt a fourth groundbreaking maneuver: a Yurchenko double pike vault, which begins with a roundoff somersault approaching the vaulting horse, followed by two revolutions in the air in poke position, with legs straight and the body bent at the hips.
“We will definitely debut it before the Olympics,” Biles said. “… We need to see, get out there and kind of control my adrenaline once I do that before the Olympics so we can perfect it in competition before that.”
Biles remains cautious about the maneuver, which she has performed during practice at the family-owned gym, World Champions Centre in Montgomery County. An under-rotated landing could be calamitous, and FIG officials in the past have undervalued what they deemed to be dangerous skills, which would reduce the risk/reward value of the Yurchenko double pike.
She also hinted, after saying that she would no longer compete after the Olympics and a 36-city post-Olympics exhibition tour, that she could seek another Olympic team in 2024 in Paris. She cited the influence of her coaches, former French gymnasts Laurent and Cecile Landi.
“(They’ve kind of guilted me into at least being a specialist and coming back (in 2024),” Biles said. “But, you know, the main goal is 2021 Olympics first, tour, and then we’ll have to see.”
Biles likely will be joined at the three upcoming events by her World Champions Centre training partners, national team members Jordan Chiles, Amari Drayton and Olivia Greaves. On the men’s side, Colin Van Wicklen of Magnolia, a former University of Oklahoma gymnast who trains at Cypress Academy of Gymnastics, is the top men’s hopeful from Houston.
Along with gymnastics, the Houston area has confirmed Olympic team members in fencing, wrestling, shooting and table tennis and top hopefuls in weightlifting, swimming, boxing and diving, among others.
Boxing
2016 Olympic hopeful Virginia Fuchs of Kemah, who fights in the 112pound division, and Darius Fulgham of Houston, who fights at 200 pounds, are part of the 13-member USA Boxing contingent that will attempt to qualify their spots for Tokyo in the Americas qualifying event that begins May 6 in Buenos Aires.
Diving
2016 Olympic team member Kassidy Cook of The Woodlands will compete on 3-meter springboard and springboard synchro with partner Sarah Bacon of Indianapolis at a World Cup event May 1-6 in Tokyo. The U.S. has yet to qualify any spots for women’s springboard at the Olympics.
Woodlands Dive Team divers Maria Coburn of Round Rock and Laura Wilkinson, the 2000 platform gold medalist who is trying to make a fourth Olympic team at age 43, also will compete at the Olympic Trials in June in Indianapolis.
Fencing
2012 Olympic bronze medalists Kelley Hurley and Courtney Hurley, who are from San Antonio and train at Alliance Fencing Academy in Houston with coach Andrey Geva, have qualified for the individual and team epee events in Tokyo along with teammate Anna Van Brummen of Houston and Katherine Holmes of Washington, D.C.
Shooting
Sgt. Phillip Jungman, a former Texas A&M student from Caldwell, qualified for the Olympic team last year in men’s skeet.
Swimming
Two-time 2016 Olympic gold medalist Simone Manuel, who is from Sugar Land and trains at Stanford University, is the top Houston-area candidate for the Olympic Trials in June in Omaha, Neb. Manuel in 2019 was the first woman to win seven medals at the FINA world championships.
Also, Brett Pinfold, 25, a former University of Wisconsin swimmer from Sugar Land, has qualified for the trials in the 100meter freestyle and Mykenzie Leehy of the University of Houston has qualified in the women’s 100 free.
Table tennis
Huijing Wang, a native of China who lives in Sugar Land and coaches at Houston Badminton Center, qualified in March 2020 as one of three U.S. women who will compete in Tokyo.
Track and field
Bryce Deadmon of Texas A&M and Ridge Point High School has the fastest time in the world this season at 400 meters in 44.62 seconds. Matthew Boling of Georgia and Strake Jesuit and Devon Achane of Texas A&M and Fort Bend Marshall have among the fastest U.S. times this season at 200 meters.
Weightlifting
2016 Olympic bronze medalist and 2017 world champion Sarah Robles, a native of California who trains in the Houston area with coach Tim Swords, will attempt to qualify for her third Olympics at the Pan American championships next week in the Dominican Republic.
Wrestling
Tamyra Mensah-Stock, a graduate of Morton Ranch High School who competed at Wayland Baptist University, has made the women’s team at 150 pounds. MensahStock was the 2019 world champion and a 2018 bronze medalist.