San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
As Biles dominates, rest of Team USA takes shape
Simone Biles’ run of dominance shows no sign of slowing as she inches toward another Olympic Games. She has won every all-around competition she has entered since 2013, and after her first day of competition at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, she’s on track to earn what would be her seventh national all-around title — again by a massive margin.
Biles fell on the bars and floor two weeks ago at the U.S. Classic, her first competition since 2019, but on Friday at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, she avoided those major miscues. Biles stepped out of bounds three times during her floor routine but she stuck her first pass, a super high tripletwisting double tuck. Biles capped her evening with a 14.650 on the floor to secure more than a two-point lead over Sunisa Lee. Biles had the highest score in three of Friday’s four events, all except the bars — on which she was second.
“Tonight I feel like it was really good,” Biles said. “It was definitely better than Classic. … Floor could have been a little bit better. I need to control my adrenaline going into my passes, but I’m not mad at today’s meet at all.”
Biles did not perform her new Yurchenko double pike, the hardest vault in the world, after unveiling the skill two weeks ago. She instead competed her other two vaults: the Cheng, a Yurchenko with a half-turn during the back handspring onto the vault, then a front flip with 1½ twists off the table, as well as an Amanar, which is a Yurchenko with a 2½ twist. Biles stuck her first vault for a 15.800 — not far off what she scored with the double pike that has garnered so much attention.
Surrounding Biles — and the massive spotlight that follows each of her routines and every breathtaking skill — are a few dozen gymnasts competing this week, hoping they can boost their chances of making the Olympic team. Lee and Jordan Chiles, in second and third, climbed ahead of their peers with strong all-around performances that keep them on track to earn a trip to Tokyo.
The top eight gymnasts in the all-around after the competition concludes Sunday automatically qualify for the Olympic trials, which will be held in St. Louis this month, and the selection committee can add additional athletes to the field. After that two-day competition, four gymnasts will be named to the U.S. team, and two more can travel to Tokyo as individuals. Those additional athletes can perform on each event and in the all-around, but their scores would not count in the team competition.
Determining the serious Olympic contenders has been particularly difficult this year, given the lack of competition in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. Some gymnasts expected to be in the mix for Tokyo also have had injuries, including Lee, who has dealt with ankle issues but competed all four events Friday for the first time since October 2019.
Lee finished second to Biles at U.S. nationals in 2019 and earned two individual medals at the world championships later that year (silver on the floor and bronze on the bars).
She excels on the bars, and on Friday she performed a difficult routine to earn a personal-best 15.300, the top score of the evening.
Chiles has pushed herself into a similar position, which becomes more secure with each consistent performance. Chiles was second to Biles at the U.S. Classic, and she replicated those solid routines Friday.
Jade Carey, who sits in fourth at 55.450, already has mathematically clinched a spot in the Olympic Games as an individual through the apparatus World Cup series. She has indicated that she might still aim for a place on the four-member U.S. team. If she is part of the team, the U.S. squad would forgo that individual spot in Tokyo and would send only five gymnasts.