HARTFORD, Conn. — There’s Simone Biles, and then there’s others.
Biles easily won the U.S. Classic on Saturday night, doing so while still leaving room for improvement. Her score of 59.5 points was 1.85 points higher than Sirise Jones, the individual all-around medalist at the World Championships for the past two years.
Biles never scored below 14.55 and had the highest scores on vault and floor exercise. She finished second to Jones on the uneven bars and second to reigning Olympic individual all-around champion Suni Lee on the balance beam. Tokyo Olympians Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey placed third and fourth, while Skye Blakely, a member of the past two world teams, placed fifth.
What’s the scary part? This was Biles’ first match of the year. She’s only going to get better from here.
London Olympic champion Gabby Douglas will join Lee and Biles on Saturday, marking the first time in history that the three Olympic individual all-around champions will compete together. He completed one event before Douglas withdrew. Lee completed all three events, earning a total score of 40.75 points and qualifying for the individual all-around competition at the national competition.
The U.S. Classic does not have a direct impact on who will be selected to represent the United States at the Paris Olympics. But it’s important because it’s a qualifier for the national championships in Fort Worth, Texas, later this month. The results of the national competition will determine who will be invited to the Olympic trials to be held June 27-30 in Minneapolis.
What Simone Biles said after winning the US Classic
After her comfortable win at the US Classic, Simone Biles said on NBC that she had no complaints about how the first tournament of 2024 went.
“For me, it was nice to be able to get back outside and get over the nerves again and feel the adrenaline,” she said.
Asked about his performance on the uneven bars, Biles admitted, “There are things I have to go home and fix, but I’m not upset.” She was also asked about having her husband, Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens, cheering on her in the crowd. What does he think about the gymnastics competition?
“I think this fight was a huge deal for him because he hasn’t played in a while,” Biles told NBC. “But I think it’s something new to hear them scream as loud as the fans on the soccer field, so it’s really exciting to be in both atmospheres.”
Biles power-on display
Biles was so powerful in her first tumbling pass on the floor exercise, a triple twist double somersault, also known as Biles II on the floor, that she laughed and bounced out of bounds. She lost 0.3 points, but she will be able to get it under control in the coming weeks.
Biles will also likely clean up Yurchenko’s double pike jump landing. He lost a half-point last year, but coach Laurent Landy will no longer have him on the podium for safety reasons.
Biles’ closest rival, Rebeca Andrade (Brazil), and Jones already had to play perfectly to face her, forcing Biles to make some mistakes. This performance further separates Biles from everyone else.
Watch a replay of the 2024 US Classic
Biles’ competitive session was broadcast live on CNBC and NBC’s streaming service, Peacock. NBC will also air a recap of US Classic highlights on Sundays at 2pm ET.
Yurchenko Double Pike (aka Biles II) sighting
Simone Biles leaves no room for anyone else.
Biles jumped Yurchenko’s double pike (Biles II on vault for record holders), which will give her a big score anyway. But unlike last year, when she received a half-point deduction for having her coach Laurent Landy stand on the landing mat in case she was in danger of falling, Landy was by her side.
Without the points deduction, Biles earned a whopping 15.6 points. That was the score after I had to run a few steps backwards to control my landing. This was one of only two scores over 15 in the meet, with Series-Jones scoring 15.25 on the uneven bars to give Biles a 1.3-point lead going into the final rotation. did it.
2022 US Champion Connor McClain leaves US Classic in wheelchair
After a strong start to the night on beam, Connor McClain was injured while warming up on the floor, forcing him to withdraw from the US Classic.
NBC television cameras showed McClain, 19, being carried out of the arena in a wheelchair with tears in his eyes. She scored a 14.200 on balance beam in her first rotation and was sitting in third place.
NBC’s John Roethlisberger reported on the air that McClain’s coach, Courtney McCool-Griffeth, called it “an Achilles heel,” without providing additional information about the severity of the injury.
Biles is back
Biles brought back the triple twist double somersault, also known as Biles II, in his floor routine. This is one of the elements she removed after the Tokyo Olympics, when the “twist” made her lose track of where she was in the air, putting her physical safety at risk.
Biles won his eighth U.S. title and sixth world title last year, both records. However, she won with some of her most difficult twist elements removed from her routine. No more. The triple-double was her first pass on the floor, and it was big, so big that she bounced it wide. She landed with a smile on her face and carried out the rest of her routine with power and refinement.
Her score was 14.8 and she had a 29.35 midway through the match. This is 0.25 points behind Sirise Jones, the individual all-around medalist at her last two World Championships. But while Biles still had the vault, Jones achieved her two highest-scoring events.
Gabby Douglas gets scratched after an incident
Gabby Douglas’ performance at the US Classic was short.
After the first event on Saturday night, Douglas was hurt. Although her reason was not disclosed, she fell off her parallel bars twice.
The 2012 Olympic champion was hoping to be selected to represent Paris for the first time in eight years since she last competed, and was looking to qualify for the individual all-around at the national championships in two weeks. She has already qualified for three events: vault, balance beam and horizontal bars, but she needed a score of 51 or higher to do all four events at nationals. With a score of 10.1 on bars, that’s going to be a tough task.
read more:Gabby Douglas withdrew from the US Classic after one event.What happened and where does she stand as a citizen?
Simone Biles starts Olympic season on a high note
Biles scored a 14.55 on balance beam, her first event at the U.S. Classic. She still has three events left, but she has a 0.20 point lead over Silice Jones in her highest scoring events, vault and floor exercise.
Of course, this is not surprising. Biles returned to competition for the first time since last year’s Tokyo Olympics and won her eighth national title and sixth world title, both records and best ever results. As long as her girlfriend is on her own game, no one can beat her.
But let’s be honest, everyone knows that in the US. The other women hope to take the remaining four spots on the team.
Tough start for Gabby Douglas
It was a tough start for Gabby Douglas, who is aiming to compete at the Paris Olympics for the first time in eight years since her last appearance. Douglas started on the uneven bars, her signature event, and lost her balance on a pirouette. She managed to make a save, but was unable to regain her rhythm and fell. She stood up, but she fell after a few seconds. Many of her fans weren’t even alive when she won gold at the 2012 London Games, but Douglas stood up and finished her routine as her fans screamed her name.
Douglas earned a 10.1 point, hurting his chances of qualifying for the individual all-around at the U.S. Championships in two weeks. She has already qualified to compete in three events at the national championships, but now she needs a score of 51 or higher to qualify for the individual all-around. (She can also be petitioned to do all four of her events.)
A historic tournament in which three Olympic individual overall champions participated.
This will be the first time that three Olympic individual all-around champions, Gabby Douglas, Simone Biles and Suni Lee, will compete together. But looking at it from a better perspective, when Douglas was selected to represent Rio, she became the first reigning individual all-around champion since Nadia Comaneci in 1980 to compete in the next Olympics. Biles apparently did the same in Tokyo.
Biles, Douglas and Carey begin participating in signature events
Fireworks will go off early. Gabby Douglas will start on the uneven bars, her signature event, and Simone Biles will start on the balance beam, where she is the reigning world champion. Oh, and Jade Carey starts with the floor exercise that won her a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Settle in and grab some popcorn. This is going to be fun.
Fans clamor for Biles before the event begins
There’s still an hour until the tournament starts, and the XL Center is still less than half full. But the fans are already loud. When Simone Biles jumped Yurchenko’s double pike vault – also known as Biles II – she was greeted with deafening cheers.
What to expect from Biles, Lee and Douglas
Biles has already qualified for the national championship as a member of the U.S. team that won seven consecutive world championships last year. But she’s using the competition to test out her routine. She brought back her triple twist, double somersault on the floor exercise, also known as Biles II, and her double, double descent on the uneven bars.
The floor also incorporates new choreography by French choreographer Gregory Millan.
Lee was originally scheduled to compete in the individual all-around, which would have been his first appearance since kidney disease forced him to cut short his final season at Auburn University more than a year ago. She jumped the horizontal bars and balance beam at the Winter Cup in February and the vault and balance beam at the American Classic last month. But she says Lee won’t be doing bars here, choosing instead to do vault, beam and floor.
Douglas’ performance at the American Classic qualified her for three events at the national event, but she wants to improve further so she can compete in the individual all-around.
Who will compete in the US Classic?
Most people flock here because gymnasts like to have competitions to relieve tension and have their routines evaluated before the big thing begins. Biles and past two-time world championship all-around medalist Series Jones will make their season debuts, as will Tokyo floor gold medalist Jade Carey and 2022 national champion Connor McClain, whose LSU team won the NCAA title last month.
How do you make the U.S. Olympic team?
Biles is likely to be the top all-rounder at the Olympic trials and is guaranteed a spot in Paris. The remaining four gymnasts and two alternates will be selected by a selection committee based on their performance this year, scoring potential, and contribution in both the preliminaries and team finals.
Unlike other sports such as swimming and track and field, gymnastics teams cannot be selected based solely on performance or ranking. In the Olympic qualifiers, the team can compete with his four athletes in each event and drop the lowest score. However, in the team finals, only his three players compete in each event, and all three scores count. This means you need to build your team to produce the best scoring and consistency in all four events.
What’s next?
There are less than two weeks left until the U.S. National Championships, which will be held from May 30th to June 2nd in Forth Worth, Texas. The Olympic Trials will be held in Minneapolis from June 27th to 30th. The Paris Olympics will open on July 26th, with qualifying for the women’s competition starting two days later.
