Simone Biles kicked off her Olympic season with a win at the Core Hydration Classic on Saturday.
In her first gymnastics meet of 2024, Biles scored 59.5 points, her highest score since 2023, when she returned to competition for the first time since the Tokyo Olympics.
As the gymnasts prepare for the Xfinity U.S. Championships and Olympic selection, she beat two-time World Championships individual all-around medalist Sirise Jones by a 1.85 point margin, leading to the top five on the Paris team. We won a spot on the women’s team.
“I was really happy to be back on the field, getting over that nerve again and feeling the adrenaline,” Biles told NBC Sports. “I can’t complain about how my first game back went.”
Core Hydration Classic: result
Biles had the highest solo scores in three of the four events: balance beam, floor exercise and vault, and was second behind Jones on the uneven bars.
Things got even tougher for her last year, when she won every individual all-around competition, including her sixth world individual all-around title.
On Saturday, Biles performed one of her signature floor moves, Biles II, or triple double, for the first time since the Tokyo Olympics.
It was the first time since 2021 that she performed one of her signature vaults, the Biles II, or the Yurchenko double pike (double backflip), in competition without being spotted by her coach, whose coach, Laurent Landy, spotted her for preventative safety at the 2023 competition and suffered a half-point deduction.
Next, the Xfinity US Championship will be held in Fort Worth, Texas from May 30th to June 2nd, and the Olympic Trials will be held in Minneapolis from June 27th to 30th.
The overall winner of the Olympic trials will be selected to represent Paris. A three-person selection committee will select the remaining four team members after a review and taking into account their performance up until last fall’s World Championships.
Biles and Jones are likely candidates. Biles is the only American to surpass Jones in the all-around competition in the past 20 months.
Tokyo Olympic medalists Jordan Childs and Jade Carey competed on the third and fourth Saturday, showing that they are vying for a spot in the 2023 World Championship squad after not being selected.
Tokyo Olympic individual all-around champion Suni Lee competed in three of the four events while continuing to recover from being diagnosed with two kidney diseases early last year.
Lee’s best routine was on the balance beam, where he had the second-best score behind Biles.
“Overall I feel pretty good,” Lee said. “I’m trying to give myself some grace and recognize that I’m not where I want to be yet, but things can only get better.”
Gabby Douglas, the 2012 Olympic individual all-around gold medalist, withdrew after her first routine, the uneven bars, and fell off the apparatus twice before completing her set.
Douglas competed in his first competition since the 2016 Rio Games on April 27, after returning to training at the end of 2022.
2022 national champion Connor McClain injured his left Achilles tendon while warming up for a floor exercise and withdrew, his coach told NBC Sports’ John Roethlisberger.
McClain performed one routine before his injury and had the third-highest score on balance beam. For her, this was her first competitive routine at the elite level since the 2022 Nationals. She competed at the collegiate level for LSU last season.
Jones second to Biles in Core Hydration Classic
Cirice Jones finished second overall at the 2024 season-opening Core Hydration Classic.
