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Five Paris Olympics storylines to know from security to Simone Biles
The Paris Olympics are fast approaching. Here’s what you need to know about the first post-pandemic Games.
The U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials conclude tonight when Simone Biles learns who else will join her on the team for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Biles led Jordan Chiles and Sunisa Lee after Friday’s competition. But Shilese Jones (knee), Kayla DiCello (Achilles) and Skye Blakely (Achilles) all suffered injuries, throwing into chaos who will fill out the five-women team.
USA TODAY Sports’ Nancy Armour and Tom Schad will provide live updates, results, highlights and analysis throughout the gymnastics trials. Follow along.
What time does Simone Biles compete today?
Tonight, Simone Biles will start on vault, with her first attempt around 8:20 p.m. ET. She will then go to uneven bars and balance beam before concluding on floor.
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Day 2 of the U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics trials begin at 8:10 p.m. and run through 11 p.m. ET. NBC is airing the session, and Peacock is streaming the session.
Pop superstar Taylor Swift responded to a post on social media about Simone Biles’ floor routine on Friday night, which features Swift’s “Ready For it.”
Where to watch U.S. gymnastics Olympic trials
NBC is airing tonight’s final session. The network will also show every minute of action on its streaming service, Peacock, where it will offer both a general stream and apparatus-specific streams for viewers who are hoping to monitor a specific athlete.
Watch U.S. gymnastics Olympic trials FREE on Fubo
Gymnastics Olympic trials schedule
Shilese Jones injured her knee on vault in pre-meet warmups on Friday night, and scratched all but uneven bars. USA Gymnastics said the decision to not compete Sunday was made after she was re-evaluated Saturday.
Jones had established herself as almost as much of a lock for the Paris squad as Simone Biles, winning all-around medals at the last two world championships. She arrived at trials nursing a shoulder injury that kept her out of the national championships earlier this month, but coach Sarah Korngold said she was ready to compete.
In warmups on Friday, however, Jones landed her vault and fell to the mat, clutching her right leg. Biles ran over to check on her, and Jones sat on the podium for several minutes before being helped backstage by Korngold and a medical staffer.
Kayla DiCello injured her Achilles injury on the first vault on Friday. She left the floor in a wheelchair and USA Gymnastics announced she was scratched from the remainder of the night.
Simone Biles got a standing ovation from fans for her Yurchenko double pike on Friday. It doesn’t matter how many times she does it, it’s always jaw-dropping to see it in person. Biles gets great height on the vault, and the power that’s needed to do it practically ripples off her as she flips. She had to take a step to control the landing, but that’s just nitpicking. The judges clearly agreed, giving her a 15.975 that included a 9.75 for execution.
Suni Lee is in good shape to make the five-person U.S. team for the Paris Olympics. She was fourth at the national championships in early June and has upgraded her routines on uneven bars and floor since then. But a health crisis 15 months ago — she developed a kidney disease that caused her to retain so much fluid she couldn’t even put on her grips — has upended her life. There were days she couldn’t even get out of bed.
Lee said a phone call she got Jan. 4, the details she wants to keep private, was a turning point for her.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going back into the gym tomorrow and I’m going to be better than I ever was.’ That was the day I was like, ‘Yep, this is what I want. And I’m gonna put my mind into it,’” she said.
Read Nancy Armour’s full story on Suni Lee’s health journey.
How many times has Simone Biles been to the Olympics?
Biles has competed in two editions of the Summer Olympics: The 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, and the 2021 Games in Tokyo. However, she only competed in some of her scheduled events in 2021 after experiencing a case of the “twisties,” which caused her to lose track of where she was in the air, jeopardizing her physical safety.
Simone Biles has won four Olympic gold medals, all of them at the 2016 Rio Games. She led the “Final Five” to team gold, claimed the individual all-around gold and won two of the four individual events: Floor exercise and vault. She has also won a silver medal (in the 2021 team competition) and two Olympic bronzes on balance beam in 2016 and 2021.
The 2024 Paris Olympics begins with the Opening Ceremony on July 26. Gymnastics competition begins July 27 with men’s qualification. Women’s qualification is July 28.
Simone Biles is a lock for Olympics. But after injuries, who joins her?
Call it carnage, chaos or just plain bad damn luck, the four women who join Simone Biles at the Paris Olympics might wind up being whoever’s healthy enough to make the trip.
In a 30-minute span Friday night, Shilese Jones suffered a knee injury that limited her to one event and Kayla DiCello was knocked out with an Achilles injury. Meanwhile Skye Blakely, a member of the U.S. teams that won gold at the last two world championships, was hobbling around the floor on crutches because of the ruptured Achilles that occurred during training two days earlier.
What makes this so devastating, besides everything, is that the U.S. women’s team had seemed, if not set, taking very firm shape after the national championships four weeks ago. And now it’s all been thrown out of whack.
Nancy Armour unpacks what all the injuries mean for Team USA.
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