MINNEAPOLIS — Serie Jones is no longer feeling any pain in her injured shoulder and is “feeling pretty good” ahead of this week’s U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials, her coach, Sarah Korngold, said Wednesday.
Jones, who has established herself as the top female gymnast in the United States behind Simone Biles, withdrew from the U.S. championships about a month ago but applied to USA Gymnastics to qualify for the trials that begin Friday and was granted permission. Korngold said Jones has been suffering from a small tear in her right labrum for about two years and felt increased pain ahead of the championships, so she decided to withdraw and rest a week as a precaution.
“We’re slowly getting back into the routine. She’s doing her full routine,” Korngold said Wednesday. “Obviously, we’re not getting as many reps as we would like, but she’s feeling good and we feel like we made the right decision. And we’re going to continue with a few more workouts here. That’s where we are.”
Jones, who took part in podium training on Wednesday morning but did not speak to reporters afterward, has won six medals over the past two world championships, including a silver medal in the individual all-around in 2022 and a bronze medal in the individual all-around in 2023.
Korngold, who will coach the 21-year-old Jones from 2022 onwards, said Jones had managed the injury over time but withdrew at U.S. championships because she was in “significant pain.” Medical staff said there was no structural deterioration in Jones’ shoulder issue, but they were concerned that letting the pain and inflammation get the better of her could make things worse ahead of qualifying. They consulted with USA Gymnastics before withdrawing and filing the petition, Korngold added.
“She wants to compete. She wants to show people that she’s earned this and she’s not just gliding through it,” Korngold said. “We just explained to her that you’ve earned this, that this petition process is here for a reason, that you’ve met all of these conditions and that it was created for a situation just like this. So we’re not circumventing the system in any way. This is literally why the system is here.”
U.S. women’s national team coaches Alicia Sacramone Quinn and Chelsea Memmel said they supported Jones’ decision.
“It’s all about how do we give her the best chance to make the Olympic Trials team,” said Memmel, technical lead for the women’s program, “and if she does make the team, can she withstand the long hours of training and the time it takes to compete at the Olympics? It was really just about giving her the best chance to achieve her goals.”
Korngold said Jones is currently pain-free, but if the shoulder injury reoccurs, as it did a few weeks ago, it could have far-reaching effects on her performance, affecting some of Jones’s best exercises: tumbling, vault, back handspring on the balance beam and pirouettes on the uneven bars.
Fortunately, Korngold said his biggest issue going into this week hasn’t been pain management, but day-to-day endurance.
“She didn’t do enough repetitions and she was building up from such a long break that she couldn’t go from zero to 100 in one go, she had to build up in parts, halves and little by little,” Korngold said. “Hopefully she can show the selection committee that she can recover quickly and get back to normal conditioning pretty quickly and then there’s more time.”
The women’s Olympic gymnastics team will be announced on the second night of competition on Sunday. The tournament begins on July 26.
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.
