Simone Biles will be joined by three Olympic debutants as part of the four-women team that will represent Team U.S.A. at the Tokyo Olympics in July.
The four-time Olympic gold medallist won the U.S. Olympic Gymnastic Trials in St. Louis, Missouri, finishing first in the two-day event with a total of 118.098 points and securing one of the two automatic qualifying berths.
Sunisa Lee clinched the second automatic qualifying spot after finishing second with 115.832 points, while Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum also made the Olympic team after scoring 114.631 and 112.564 points, respectively.
The International Gymnastics Federation's decision to reduce the size of the Olympic rosters means only four gymnasts will be part of the team in Tokyo, as opposed to five in the 2016 Olympics.
Teams, however, were given the chance to earn the right to send two extra gymnasts to the Games, who will only compete in individual competitions. Jade Carey and MyKayla Skinner secured the two spots for the U.S.
Here's all you need to know about the gymnasts that will join Biles in Tokyo in July.
Sunisa Lee
The 18-year-old finished second at the U.S. Olympic Trials on Sunday, securing one of the automatic Olympic berths along with Biles, and becoming the first Hmong American on an Olympic gymnastics team. The Minnesota native has consistently been one of the best U.S gymnasts since making her senior debut two years ago, when she won the gold medal on the uneven bars, silver in the all-round competitions and bronze in the floor exercise at the 2019 U.S. National Championships.
In the same year, she won a bronze and a silver medal at the World Championships in the uneven bars and floor exercise respectively, clinching gold in the team competition. This year, she claimed silver at the U.S. National Championships in both the bars and all-round competition and goes into the Olympics as favorite to win gold in the former exercise.
"This means so much to me," Lee told NBC on Sunday. "I've worked so hard for the past couple of years, and to just go on the floor and do everything I was supposed to do feels amazing."
Jordan Chiles
Like Lee, Chiles will be making her first appearance at the Olympic Games after finishing third at the U.S. Olympic Trials with 114.631 points. The 20-year-old, who was named after Michael Jordan, is a close friend of Biles and moved to Texas two years ago to train with the four-time Olympic gold-medalist and her coach, Laurent Landi. The decision has paid handsome dividends for Chiles, who has performed 24 routines without a major mistake, a staggering feat for a sport where even the smallest mistake can be penalized.
Chiles, who won the gold medal in the vault, floor and team competition at the Pacific Rim Championships in 2018, wasn't an automatic qualifier, but her performance at the Trials was more than enough to convince the selecting committee.
Grace McCallum
McCallum secured the fourth and final team spot after finishing fourth in the all-round competition at the Trials on Sunday with a score of 112.564 points, just three-tenths of a point ahead of MyKayla Skinner. Like Lee and Chiles, McCallum will be making her Olympic debut in July. But the 18-year-old already has plenty of international experience under her belt, winning the gold medal in the team competition at the World Championships in the 2018 and 2019.
Vault is the signature exercise of the Minnesota-native, who was a two-time gold medalist at the Pacific Rim Championship in 2018, and won three gold medals at the Pan American Championships in the same year.
Jade Carey
Carey will represent Team U.S.A. in the individual events in Tokyo. The 21-year-old effectively sealed her spot after winning the vault title at three different World Cup events last year, but still had to take part in the U.S. Olympic Trials, where she finished 16th—although her all-round score was lowered as she didn't participate in every event over the two days of competition.
The Arizona-native has won five World Championship medals, including a gold medal in the team competition two years ago.
MyKayla Skinner
An alternate for the Olympic team in Rio five years ago, Skinner only just missed out on being a member of the quartet that will represent Team U.S.A. in Tokyo as she finished fifth at the Trials, three-tenths of a point behind McCallum.
Like Carey, Skinner, who at 24 years of age edges out Simone Biles by a few months as the oldest member of the team, will now represent Team U.S.A. in the individual events—athletes can choose to compete in as many events as they want.
Skinner is very experienced on the international scene and won three gold medals in the World Championships in 2014, 2015 and 2019.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Dan Cancian is currently a reporter for Newsweek based in London, England. Prior to joining Newsweek in January 2018, he was a news and business reporter at International Business Times UK. Dan has also written for The Guardian and The Observer.
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