MINNEAPOLIS — They clapped hands, white-knuckled. They screamed, both in encouragement and sometimes in disgust. They contorted their bodies in their chairs as if telepathically stepping off onto the competition floor would help. Sometimes they covered their eyes.
The U.S. gymnastics competitions may have been glittering and sparkling on NBC on Sunday night, but on the other side of the Target Center, where the gymnasts’ families were seated, it was a cauldron of pressure and prayer.
The U.S. women’s Olympic gymnastics team has long been the toughest in the world to put together. This year was even tougher, partly because of new rules from the Federation of International Gymnastics and partly because a group of veterans not only held on to their spots but also took their games to the next level.
It made the strain for perfection so great for the competitors that no one was immune. Simone Biles fell from the beam. So did Suni Lee – and almost twice as much.
They are just the last two Olympic all-around champions. And it even touched them.
Ultimately, five – both superstars and survivors – are on their way to Paris to represent America, where expectations are golden and nothing else.
Biles, of course, is headed to her third Olympics. One fall wouldn’t change that; she won the trials with an impressive 117.225 points (5.55 ahead of Lee) and secured a guaranteed slot. When she wasn’t testing the laws of gravity, she spent much of the night trying to both calm and fire up her potential teammates.
“I know exactly what they’re going through,” Biles said afterward.
The next four were chosen by a committee, who analyzed not only performance, but also experience, confidence and scoring potential in the team event.
They chose Sunisa Lee, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles and Hezley Rivera.
The first four are Olympic veterans, twenty-somethings whose talent and determination (and FIG’s rules that reward difficulty) have ensured that this team is no longer the domain of lonely teenagers.
Rivera, 16, from Oradell, New Jersey, is the only new face on the team. Probably because she has scoring potential on bars and perhaps also on beam for the team event, where the Americans are trying to win back the gold after being defeated by the Russians in Tokyo.
There was carnage along the way. Three devastating injuries to top competitors on Friday ended years of dreams and raised the stakes. Everyone is one moment away from catastrophe. Others missed it because of the smallest missteps or mental errors.
Everyone else tried to get through. Chiles fell off the beam. Carey stepped on the floor. Biles too. Sometimes routines ended with tears of relief.
And so it went on. This was more about showing the ability to shake it off and come back stronger — Biles on floor and Lee on vault, for example, mistakes after beam.
Meanwhile, the tension in the parents’ section only increased. With every misstep and every slip, hearts soared and hearts broke.
The Olympics once allowed a country to send seven gymnasts to compete — the famous 1996 team was called the “Magnificent Seven.” Before Tokyo, it was six. Now it’s five.
The rationale was to diminish the advantages of strong programs – particularly the US – that are able to bring in event specialists for team competition. Think McKayla Maroney on vault in 2012 or Madison Kocian on bars in 2016.
All that meant here was one less ticket in a lottery with almost impossible odds.
In 2023, 4.76 million girls in America will participate in gymnastics, according to statistics from USA Gymnastics, but the potential number is even higher. Gymnastics is a hugely popular sport that almost every girl in the country has tried at some level in her life.
Not everyone swims. Not everyone sails or skis or plays ice hockey. Almost everyone is exposed to some form of tumbling, often at a very young age, if not during gym class. For example, Biles was first sent to a gymnasium because her constant jumping off the bench distracted her father from watching football on television.
Yet only five make the Olympic team, the only time the sport generally receives much attention in America.
By the end of Sunday night, that meant one spot for every gymnast in America born between 2004 and 2008, what was once considered a generation in gymnastics. In the past, they would all have made it, but this time around, the top four new contenders — Rivera; Tiana Sumanasekera, 16, of Pleasanton, Calif.; Kailua Lincoln, 18, of Frisco, Texas; and Joscelyn Roberson, 18, of Texarkana, Texas — could only try to outlast each other.
Basketball, football and track and field have similarly high participation and exposure rates, but also larger rosters. There is no room for sentimental choices here. No chemistry guys or reserves or veterans who could be good for leadership. That luxury does not exist.
Everyone will have to be razor-sharp next month.
Biles will of course lead the way. The 27-year-old native of Spring, Texas, is an ageless wonder, the oldest American gymnast since the 1950s. She hasn’t lost an all-around competition in 11 years, including the 2023 world championships. She’s not only maintaining her greatness, but pushing it further also the limits of greatness.
With her difficulty, she will be the odds-on favorite to win a second gold medal (2016, Rio) and avenge a tumultuous trip to Tokyo in 2021 that saw her withdraw from numerous events while battling the Twisties. In the team event, she will likely be counted on to perform on all four apparatus.
“I knew I wasn’t done after my performances in Tokyo,” Biles said. “I knew I was coming back.”
She is accompanied by a group of veterans, but they had to fight hard to get this far.
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Suni Lee, 21, a native of St. Paul, Minnesota, and the 2020 Olympic all-around champion, has fought through health issues to return from a career at Auburn to elite competition.
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Jade Carey, 24, is also back for her second Games. In Tokyo, she won gold on floor, advanced to the finals in both vault and all-around and was part of America’s silver medal-winning team.
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Jordan Chiles, 23, was also part of the US silver-winning team in the final games and was put on extra duty when Biles had to drop out after the first rotation. She will earn two individual NCAA championships in 2023 while competing for UCLA.
Then there’s Rivera, who will likely have a chance to compete in at least one discipline on the team event and possibly qualify for the Olympic finals in beam and bars. In a team that has always been known for its youth and energy, she will be the one to make her debut, perhaps reminding the veterans what the Olympics are all about.
Those are your five, America’s five, the only five.
In a country obsessed with gymnastics and with enough talent to field a dozen Olympic teams, this team – the most difficult in the world to put together – is being assembled.
And now comes the even harder part. The Russians.
