Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hesley Rivera were named to the U.S. Olympic team for women’s gymnastics on Sunday night at Target Center.
At 27 years old, Biles will be competing in her third Olympic Games.
Lee, 21, of St. Paul, drew an especially loud ovation from the crowd as she competed in her second Olympic Games after winning the all-around gold medal in Tokyo three years ago.
Childs, 23, and Carey, 24, complete the quartet of Tokyo Olympians who will return for the next Games.
The 16-year-old Rivera from New Jersey is the youngest member of the team and the only one making his Olympic debut.
Lianne Wong, 20, and Jocelyn Roberson, 18, will travel as alternates. Wong was also an alternate on the Tokyo Olympic team.
Here’s what happened that night:
9:28 p.m.: Simone Biles wins Olympic Trials, Suni Lee takes second place
Simone Biles’ floor routine began with the opening beats of Taylor Swift’s “Ready for It?” Biles is ready for the Paris Olympics.
As the all-around winner at the trials at Target Center, Biles automatically qualified for this year’s Summer Olympics without any deliberation from the judges. But the standing ovation she received as she left the court, sat on nearby steps, smiling and waving suggested the judges had no choice either way.
Biles’ biggest rival will be… Biles. She’ll be competing in her third Olympics. Her floor exercise score of 14.725 was the second-best score in Friday’s qualifying rounds, behind only Biles herself. At 27, she will be the oldest American female gymnast to compete in the Olympics since the 1950s.
For the rest of the trial contestants, time begins to wait for the judges to select the remaining members of their teams.
Suni Lee was beaming even before she landed her vault and smiled as she took small jumps. Her 14.100 was 0.575 points better than her vault score on Friday. She was the replacement vaulter for the night for Kayla DiCello, who sustained an injury in rotation 1 on vault. Lee made a heart with her hands in front of the home crowd and finished the night with a second-place finish in the all-around.
Hesley Rivera also saw a big improvement in her vault score, going from 13.575 on Friday to 14.200 on Sunday. Rivera nailed the landing, marking the final stretch for the 16-year-old to make her case to the judges for an Olympic spot.
As the fourth rotation progressed, each Trial skater began to receive a standing ovation after completing their performance, something that only a handful of skaters received at the men’s Trials on Saturday.
Next to the floor, Jordan Childs closed her eyes for a moment, looked up and took a deep breath before her floor routine. Other skaters stood nearby, joining in on the cheers that drowned out the music of the routine as they made perfect passes across the floor. Childs placed third all-around and after embracing her teammates, she retreated to a nearby corner where Jade Carey was waiting for the floor routine to begin, ready to cheer.
Carey made the final pass across the floor to the end of “Seven Nation Army” for a score of 14.150. Jocelyn Roberson earned the same score as the night before on floor, 13.925.
Childs wasn’t going to wait quietly through the deliberation. After her final routine of the night, she ran across the vault, waving her arms and pumping up the crowd.
Final Overall Standings
1. Simone Biles, 117.225
2. Suni Lee, 111.675
3. Jordan Chiles, 111.425
4. Jade Carey, 111.350
5. Hesley Rivera, 111.150
6. Jocelyn Roberson, 110.975
7. Lian Wong, 110.425
8. Tiana Sumanasekera, 109.550
9. Kariyah Lincoln, 109.400
8:50pm: More beam shaking.
Simone Biles walked off the stage on Friday in visibly frustrated eyes after a wobbly performance on the balance beam. On Sunday, she smoothed out every unsteady pass she’d stumbled on the first day, but just before she came off the beam, her front heel shifted, she wobbled and she plummeted to the floor. Jordan Childs did the same thing late in her rotation, another top-notch all-around skater who also got off the beam on her second day.
Still, Biles left the balance beam with a smile on her face this time, her 13.900 just shy of the mark achieved by Suni Lee and Tianna Sumanasekera on the balance beam on Friday.
A 106-year-old World War II veteran, interviewed on a big screen by an in-arena host, smiled even more when she said she came to see Biles, her favorite athlete, and waved to him from the arena floor with both hands.
Kariyah Lincoln, 18, scored 13.650 despite going out of bounds on her final pass on floor exercise. Her floor score of 14.150 was the second-best of the night behind Biles. A strong floor exercise will be key for Lincoln to qualify for the Olympics. The U.S. hopes Lincoln comes into the event feeling confident while also aiming for gold in the all-around.
If floor exercise is part of Lincoln’s path to the Olympics, balance beam is a key component for 16-year-old Tiana Sumanasekera. She posted the second-highest score on balance beam on Friday and matched it Sunday with a score of 13.950. But Hesley Rivera, also 16, posted a higher balance beam score earlier in the day with a 14.275. That improves Rivera’s chances, but not Sumanasekera’s.
Jocelyn Roberson, a member of last year’s World Championship team, continued her solid all-around performance on Day 2 with a 14.050 on balance beam. Combined, Roberson and Rivera both had identical beam scores over the two days.
Overall standings after the third rotation
1. Simone Biles, 102.500
2. Suni Lee, 97.575
3. Jordan Chiles, 97.325
4. Jade Carey, 97.200
5. Jocelyn Roberson, 97.050
6. Hesley Rivera, 96.950
7. Lian Wong, 95.925
8. Tiana Sumanasekera, 95.825
9. Kariyah Lincoln, 95.150
8:10pm: Suni Lee struggles on the balance beam
Suni Lee’s balance beam performance on Sunday was different from her balance beam performance on Friday. On Friday, she received the highest score (14.400) of any athlete on the balance beam. But on her second rotation on Sunday, Lee fell off the beam after mounting and had to repeatedly check her balance to stay on the bar for the remainder of her performance. She received a score of 12.825, lowered by a deduction for the difficulty of her routine.
On the uneven bars, Simone Biles tied Jordan Childs’ rotation 1 score (14.200). The uneven bars is the only event in which Biles has not won an Olympic medal, but her combined uneven bars scores from both nights of qualifying still rank second to Li.
Jade Carey received 13.075 points on bars, a lower score than her performance on Friday, but Carey’s strengths lie in vault and floor exercise. She earned the second-highest score on vault, behind Biles, in the first-rotation qualifying round.
Carey did not compete in the team event at the Tokyo Olympics, but she did win gold in the floor exercise. Because Olympic gymnastics is no longer a team event, Carey will be using her strengths to earn a spot in the team event. Floor exercise will be Carey’s final rotation.
Among gymnasts competing in their first Olympic Games, 16-year-old Hesley Rivera improved her balance beam score by 0.575 points from Friday, making it the second-most difficult balance beam routine behind Li. Rivera’s first beam score of 14.300 put her ahead of Biles and Chiles on the second. She is currently fifth in the all-around standings.
Overall ranking after the second rotation
1. Simone Biles, 88.600
2. Jordan Chiles, 85.100
3. Suni Lee, 83.725
4. Jade Carey, 83.575
5. Hesley Rivera, 83.400
6. Jocelyn Roberson, 83,000
7. Lian Wong, 82.300
8. Tiana Sumanasekera, 81.875
9. Kariyah Lincoln, 81.500
7:35pm: Suni Lee’s incredible performance on uneven bars
It didn’t take long for the first standing ovation of the night. The Target Center crowd gasped and applauded every time Suni Lee performed a move on the uneven bars. They rose to their feet when Lee nailed the landing. Her 14.875 points for rotation 1 were the highest score of either night’s trials so far, thanks to the difficulty of the move and Lee’s performance.
Simone Biles was the last athlete to compete on vault, attempting her namesake move but stepping out on the landing. But there’s a reason this vault is the most difficult: Despite her stumble, Biles earned a score of 15.500, the second-highest vault score in preliminaries behind her attempt on Friday night.
Jordan Childs earned a score of 14.500 on vault, improving on her score from Friday. UCLA coach Janelle McDonald cheered from the front row of the stands. Childs and Lee are now tied for second in the all-around behind Biles.
Hesley Rivera’s 14.300 on bars was the fourth-highest score of any bars routine at the Trials, moving her to sixth place.
Next, Lee’s group will move onto the balance beam with a spin, while Biles’ group will compete on the bars.
Overall standings after the first race
1. Simone Biles, 74.400
2nd place (tie): Jordan Chiles, 70.900
2nd place (tie): Suni Lee, 70.900
4. Jade Carey, 70.500
5. Jocelyn Roberson, 69.975
6. Hesley Rivera, 69.125
7. Tiana Sumanasekera, 69.050
8. Lian Wong, 68.650
9. Kariyah Lincoln, 68.325
Day 2 Preview
Two Olympic women’s all-around gold medalists, Simone Biles and St. Paul University’s Suni Lee, shone on the first day of the U.S. Olympic Trials at Target Center on Friday, but injuries to three top contenders for the Paris Games cast a shadow over the competition.
Skye Blakely, a member of the teams that have won gold medals at the past two world championships, ruptured her Achilles tendon during training on Wednesday and withdrew from the next day’s qualifying rounds.
And in warmups on Friday, another member of the world championships team, Serie Jones, injured her knee on vault. She competed only on bars that night and later confirmed she would not compete on Sunday, but the extent of her injury is not yet known.
And on the vault, Kayla DiCello, the 2023 Pan American Games individual all-around champion, had to be helped off the floor after her first slalom attempt, after she confirmed on social media that she had also ruptured her Achilles tendon, ending her Olympic hopes.
Major changes were made to the field on the second night of qualifying, with 13 skaters now competing for five Olympic spots and two alternate spots. Biles currently leads the all-around standings, followed by Jordan Childs, Li, Jade Carey and Jocelyn Roberson.
The scores from Sunday’s competition will be combined with Friday’s results to determine the overall winner who will automatically qualify for Paris. The other four members of the team, plus any reserves, will be selected by a three-person committee.
Tonight’s competition begins at 7pm and will air on NBC and stream on Peacock, which will also offer streaming of individual competitions.
After the gymnasts take turns competing in the four events, officials will deliberate and announce the Olympic team at 9:50 p.m.
Click here to see the women’s rotation schedule
Lee will start on the uneven bars before progressing to balance beam, floor exercise and vault.
Biles, 27 and expected to compete in her third Olympic Games, plans to start with the vault and then progress to balance beam, balance beam and floor exercise.
Unlike the men’s team, which used a strict mathematical formula to select the highest-scoring athletes in the team competition in Paris, the women’s team has more discretionary criteria — and with a rash of injuries this week, discretion will be necessary.
Men’s Gymnastics Olympic Selection Results
Overall Standings at the End of Day 1 of the U.S. Olympic Trials
1. Simone Biles, 58.900
2. Jordan Chiles, 56.400
3. Suni Lee, 56.025
4. Jade Carey, 55.825
5. Jocelyn Roberson, 55.475
6. Kalya Lincoln, 54.875
7. Hesley Rivera, 54.825
8. Lian Wong, 54.750
9. Tiana Sumanasekera, 54.700